YuGiOh: Merged Dimensions
by wd50
Summary: DISCONTINUED
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own YGO

A/N: DISCONTINUED. So this is a self-gratification fic, I'm not proud of it. I wrote it sometime ago, as you can probably tell from the monsters mentioned. Won't be continued, posted here as a backup in case I lost the file and wanted to read it still.

* * *

Hi, my name is Ushio. My name is now Ushio. I don't want to mention my previous name, for fear of this diary, no, journal (journal sounds much more masculine, not that it was something I had to think about before) being used as proof of my insanity. If I haven't already gone insane that is. But let me repeat. My name is Tetsu Ushio, and I live in a world where monsters are real.

I only realized it five minutes ago, when I stepped outside and physically bumped into a Tron-like cyborg, whom my neighbor casually referred to as Greg, species- Battle Warrior (700/1000). That problem had by far overshadowed my previous problem- becoming a 6'2, 250lb, 16 year-old male, in an anime world where my mind had just been destroyed by the main protagonist. As you can probably tell, I'm having my share of problems today.

I had woken up in an alley in this body, presumable because the soul of the previous being who inhabited this body had been shattered by a 5000 year-old dictator. I had the scattered memories of my, I guess former body owner, and managed to get home alive.

It was really too bad that his memories didn't include the part about _Duel Monsters Being Real_!

And also pathetically little regarding the supposed protagonist of this series, Yugi Moto.

My current plans were simple, avoid school, avoid Yugi and the much darker spirit that possessed him, until hopefully the anime version begins and the story turns a lot less dark. I never read the manga, so I can't be sure. Though how things change now that monsters are real, I really can't imagine. I mean, to have a separate species co-existing with human kind, it changes things completely.

Hopefully enough that I survive through the series


	2. Chapter 2

Which reminds me! I fumbled around for the only monster Ushio remembers having, Dark Chimera, lv 5, (1610/1460). A monster I wouldn't even dream of having in my deck in a previous life time now seemed like my only ticket to life. And I lost it. Ushio, I mean the last Ushio, had been certain to always keep the card for Dark Chimera in a special pocket in his shirt, so he either lost it or had it stolen from him while he was unconscious.

By this world's standards, Dark Chimera had been a pretty strong monster, most duelists only have level 2 or 3 monsters. While higher level monsters required more magic from the duelist to maintain, their actual attack and defense values tend to increase much faster. Dark Chimera, for example, had a theoretical value of (1610/ 1460), as determined by his species, the one owned by the previous Ushio had an actual attack of 1400, and an actual defense of 1200, around 80% of its theoretical maximum values, which was very impressive. Now that it's gone, I would have to buy another one. It was utterly unsafe to wander the streets when monsters, tamed or wild, might roam the streets.

Domesticated monsters, even if later abandoned by their masters would only return to the shadow realm. However, if the gateway between the two worlds were to falter, as it so often does, wild monsters can and do frequently pass through, then it's anybody's guess what might happen. To put things into perspective, as a young, highly athletic male, my numbers, had I been a duel monster, would be 100/100. The previous Ushio might manage to increase it to 200/200 at the peak of his physical strength.

So I turned my humble apartment upside down looking for money. As you might be able to imagine, low-level thugs aren't usually very well off. I found $5,000 cash and a bank card, which was shown to contain only $2,500.

Well, that wasn't going to get me very far, but I had little choice. If the unthinkable were to happen, i.e. I was to be attacked by a duel monster, a monster would at least buy me time so I could escape.

There were many Duel Monster shops across Domino city, I just had to avoid the one Yugi's grandfather owned. None of them were named "Motou Game shop" though (I later learned Yugi's family game shop was actually called Turtle Game shop). I called the first one in the yellow pages alphabetically, ironically, it was named Apple Game Shop. Assured that there were no old man shop keeper or grandson, I hang up and called a cab. I would have taken the bus, except Duel Monsters were also permitted on the bus, and I didn't want to have a panic attack in a crowded place.

Though sharing the name of a computer giant, Apple Game shop had been particularly disappointing, insect based and filled with creatures like Petit Moth (300/200) and Skull Servant (300/200), it reminded me of the earlier Yugioh games, where the earlier levels were filled with ridiculously weak monsters. Its strongest monster was Battle Warrior (700/1000), which would set me back $20,000, and that was just ridiculous.

"Buy something or get out!" a green haired punk sneered beside me, I looked down, towering over the runt by at least a full foot.

"You talking to me, kid?"

"I-" The runt sputtered, "I'll have you know that I'm Weevil Underwood, the Japanese Duel Monsters champion, back off or I'll have my insects rip you to shreds so small that they'll never even find your body!"

So this was Weevil, hmm. I snarled down at him, showing all teeth. "So what do you think's gonna happen first, me get a hold of you, or your monsters get a hold of me?" He cowered away. The unibrow was really very intimidating.

"Can I help you, sir." The shop clerk asked testily, he ignored Weevil when he was threatening to kill me, but now that Weevil looked uncomfortable, he was quick to break up the argument.

"Yes," I nodded, "how much are the ones with 300 atk?" I asked, not wanting to make my intentions obvious, not sure if my intentions would be valid to make obvious.

"Which ones, sir? Their prices can vary a lot depending on their defense," the clear didn't even bother hiding the disdain in his voice.

"Tell me about it," I insisted. At 6'2" and looking like I could physically beat up the monsters I was looking at, the clerk obeyed. He proceeded to go over prices that made me wince. The highest defense, Stone Statue of Aztecs (300/2000) cost $60,000. At this rate, it would be impossible to put together a deck. Thankfully the ones at 300/200 were much more reasonable by comparison, a mere $3000. The one I pointed to, Spirit Reaper, was even cheaper by virtue of being three stars, and thus imposing a much higher demand on the duelist.

"That's our cheapest model, $1000," The clerk followed my fingers, then lost all interest. He was barely looking at me anymore. I guess they got paid commission based on sales.

"I'll take it," I replied gladly. There were two monsters in this entire shop worth looking at, Spirit Reaper, with the effect of not being destroyed in battle, and Injection Lily Fairy (400/1500), with the effect increasing its attack by 3000 at the price of 2000 LP. Since I wasn't sure how much my LP was, or what happened when my LP went to zero, I figured I wouldn't take the risk.

Upon my purchase, I received a government-issued duel disk. It's much smaller than the ones Kaiba produced, only slightly larger than a watch, and provided basic duelist information, like level and past duel history. It also contained basic functions like initiating a duel, accepting a duel and surrendering. Mine displayed a large red 0, indicating I was a trainee duelist. I must complete three official duels (complete meaning neither party surrendered) within one month to prove that I was capable of summoning and sustaining monsters, to become a level 1 duelist. After that, after each month, I may level up or down depending on my duels, but I would never get lower than lv1.

I gingerly stepped outside, watching out for monsters, it must have look hilarious to see a 6'2 man walk on tiptoes, because I heard uncontrolled laughter from just beside me. Weevil Underwood didn't even bother hiding, as he stood in broad daylight, beside the shop I just exited, with a Basic Insect (500/700) beside him. That thing was huge! When on all six legs, it must have been a foot tall and three feet long. At least it was grass-hopper shaped, if it had looked like a spider or cockroach, I would have ran for my life.

"What happened to the size of insects being restricted by gravity and atmospheric oxygen content?" I mused out, studying the giant creepy insect with a morbid fascination.


	3. Chapter 3

"What are you babbling about?" Weevil returned my snarl from inside the shop, "doesn't matter now. I promised you inside the shop that my insects would eat you alive, and I'm a man of my word."

I stared, looking at pedestrians who only cowered and shied away in fear. "Can somebody call 911?" I asked tentatively, surely these people weren't going to stand around and watch when my life is clearly threatened! I think I saw a squad car parked in the coffee shop diagonally across from me.

"It's no use!" Weevil sneered again, "Nobody can help you now."

"Why not?" I asked, sincerely confused, I didn't recall much police involvement from what memories I gathered, but this was truly ridiculous.

"Oh, you really are new at this, aren't you? This is going to be fun!" Weevil cackled again in that shrill, high-pitched voice, "when you bought the duel monster, you big oaf, you became a duelist. And as a level 5 duelist," at this point, I heard oohs and aahs from the crowd, Weevil pulled himself (slightly) taller and made a mockery of waving that the crowd, "I get three mandatory challenges per week, when I can challenge anybody at my level or higher and they can't turn it down."

"So which level am I?" I asked, still not quite comprehending.

"You?" He somehow managed to look down on me while being a foot shorter, "you're at level 0! But if I don't use my three challenges, I can use them to challenge one person at any level and that person cannot refuse! And that's you!"

"So what do I get if I win?" I asked, taunting him so he would talk further. Weevil loved showing off, which was good, because I needed all the information I could get.

"You can't possibly win!" Weevil's anger was expected, "Just for that, I will bet _two_ monsters against you, when you lose, you will owe me the pathetic monster you just bought, and your soul!"

"My _what_?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but I couldn't very well ask whether scientists had confirmed that human souls existed, what if it was common knowledge?

"It's a figure of speech, you moron. As soon as you lose to me, you would be legally bound to me, then I will destroy you and nobody can say a word!" Weevil's cackle was really getting on my nerves, but I needed to know more.

"How do I win, or even lose?" I looked at him with complete wide-eyed sincerity. Inside, I was swearing up a storm. How the hell did I end up in this hell hole? Where's the law in this messed up excuse of a country? How backwards can they get, allowing one person to own and murder another?

"When your monsters are all destroyed, or when your life force reaches zero and you can't summon any more monsters, duh! I wonder how I'll defeat you," Weevil was always the type to toy with the weak before he crushed them, the weak being somebody who physically towered over him must have been an added bonus.

"That's it?" I asked, "as long as one person doesn't have any more monsters on the-, outside?" I was about to say on the field before I caught myself.

"That's enough talking," Weevil tried to make his barely 5' figure look imposing, "now my insect, attack!"

"Spirit Reaper, defend," I pulled out the monster card I just got, hoping that it retained the special effect of not getting destroyed in battle. As though by my unspoken command, Spirit Reaper flew forward with me as I raced towards Weevil, shielding me from all possible angles of attack from his Basic Insect. I didn't know how long a turn was going to be, or how soon new monsters could be summoned, so I had to make this quick.

Basic Insect had time to attack only once, while my Spirit Reaper obvious faded in and out of existence from the attack, it never truly dissipated, always keeping me out of the line of injury.

Weevil was maybe 10 feet away from me at the impromptu start of our battle, and he apparently did not realize the need to run when I charge him, so it took all but a second for me to grab him and punch him in the face. I had always been the good girl (sort of..., and yes, girl, now definitely Had Been) and I've never punched anybody in the face before, it felt good. Weevil passed out promptly and his Basic Insect faded out, disappearing back into its card. My Spirit Reaper flew beside me, I patted where its shoulders would be, expecting to pass through, but actually hitting cloth. "Good job buddy," I commended, my first ever duel monster rejoiced by floating around in a circle above my head. It was a good thing that the only visible parts of him was the cloth and the scythe.

"So..." I looked up at the astonished crowd after my brief celebration, "did I win?"

I heard gasps, a scattered clapping and various claims like 'I can't believe it,' 'Weevil Underwood lost!' 'You don't see duelist attacks very much!' But nobody answered my question. It sucks being left in the dark, to the point that I was even beginning to miss Weevil. Remembering Weevil's threats, remembering that Weevil had many powerful monsters, like the Insect Queen, Great Moth, and even Cocoon of Evolution that I couldn't possibly defeat, I decided to assume that I won, take my winnings and scat.

While Weevil was still unconscious, I picked up his deck and couldn't help breathing in sharply in surprise. It contained probably no more than 20 cards, all of which were monsters. Where was the rest of his deck? This probably wasn't the best time to ask questions, I saw three cops walking towards me. In most civilized societies, cops should provide a sense of security, maybe not while you're driving in your car, but at least right after an attack by a deranged madman, okay, mad kid. I did not consider wherever this was a civilized society.


	4. Chapter 4

"Hey, good job," one man in uniform congratulated me. I relaxed a little, I guess directly attacking a duelist is permitted- this changes things.

"Thanks," I smiled, not entirely sure what they wanted.

"If you want, we can officialise this duel." The young woman probably saw that I was confused, so offered this helpful tidbit.

"Sure, thanks." I replied awkwardly, still keeping my distance.

The cops took out a standardized form, filled in most of the content and handed back to me. Looking it over, it was pretty standard, date, time, location, name of duelists, the wager, who won and who lost. It didn't require a signature, just confirmation videos that would be sent soon into the network, I filled in my name with fingerprint, a similar fingerprint was obtained from the still-unconscious Weevil.

"You really should fill this out ahead of time from now on," the same woman advised me, "in case there weren't any cameras around, you could be sued for assault." I nodded appreciatively, ie was life-lessons like this that I truly needed at this point.

Now that the formalities were finished, one of the younger men looked at me eagerly, "so? Which two of his monsters are you going to take?"

"Calvin!" The older man reprimanded, but he looked no less enthusiastic. Well, if I had help, why not use it.

"I haven't decided yet," I replied honestly, fingering through the twenty cards they called a deck, "I don't plan on building an insect deck, so I thought I'd just get the most expensive ones, so I can trade in for cards I need, you know?"

"Sure, sure," all three nodded, and the youngest man, Calvin, poked his head closer to the deck, "can I see?"

I moved the deck closer to their general direction and received oohing and aahing as response. Unlike the cards I was used to, these cards only had a name and a picture, no description, no level, not even attack and defence points.

"Perfect Ultimate Moth!" the woman sudden exclaimed, elated. The other two followed suit. "I've only seen Weevil Underwood summon it, nobody else had been able to summon it, ever!"

"Why not?" I asked, curiously, hoping not to reveal too much of my ignorance.

"Well, nobody knows how." The older man replied matter-of-factly. I guess if these monsters were discovered not created, it sort of makes sense that people aren't completely sure of their effects and requirements, especially if anybody who knew keeps it a closely guarded secret.

"I'll take it," I grabbed the card, "and I'll take Insect Queen too." Having taken Weevil's two strongest (and most expensive) monsters, I finally spared a thought at Weevil still lying on the ground.

"Fix up your deck quick," the woman whose name I still didn't know advised, "He can challenge you again in a month, and you know that he will."

I nodded, secretly grateful that I would get at least one month's reprieve, should be enough at least to get a half decent deck. Which reminds me, "do you guys know anything about spell and trap cards?" I was careful to keep my question as vague as possible, I didn't know how they would work in a world where Monsters were real.

All three shook their heads, though Calvin did offer, "I heard a good spell cost around the same as a level 4 or 5 monster, so you should be able to get a couple if you wanted."

The elder man continued this train of thought "Kaiba Corp sometimes have some magic seminars, but I wouldn't bet on it."

"Thanks guys," I nodded, grabbing my new-found prize and heading directly to Kaiba Corp. Should have gone to their game shop from the start, really. But then again, I doubt a large company like that would sell great effect monsters as if they were normal monsters.

And I would be wrong.

Kaiba Corp did not differentiate most of the effect monsters either, at least not in terms of price. The spell and traps were even more ridiculously overpriced than the monsters, a spell that claims to increase the attack of any one dark monster by 300 pts cost an astonishing $70,000, I suspect it was just Dark Energy, which I didn't even keep in my physical deck, not even when I was in middle school at was at times literally penniless. Ranting aside, I really did need to learn spells and traps, I could not possibly imagine dueling with only monsters, it would be like drawing cards to see which is larger, and now I don't even need to draw anymore.

"What can I get for this," I approached the first randomly-colored-hair with black suit guy I saw, which seemed to be a Kaiba Corp signature look. They really should get friendlier looking people for customer service.

Being physically intimidating had its perks, that guy obviously doubled as security, but even he took a step back as I got closer. The guarded look immediately turned into one of respect as he looked at the card in my hand- Insect Queen (2200/2400). Personally, I think Insect Queen's special ability sucked, even though it could increase 200 attack for every insect on the field, making its attack technically 2400, it required one sacrifice per attack, and it produces one attack mode, 100 attack insect tolken per turn, which was a clear target. But this guy didn't, and didn't need to, know that.

"This is amazing," he exclaimed before he could stop himself. I could see a 'screw-it' expression flicker across his face, before he discarded all professional restraint and cooed over the card like a fangirl, "is this the same card used by the Japanese champion Weevil Underwood?"

I nodded, not caring to interpret what exactly what he meant, "the one and only. Now how much can I get for it?"

"Now, this is a very rare card," the man began, reaching out tentatively to touch the edge of the card, very odd for an adult male, "but we'd have to test its actual attack and defense before valuations. You know that the one Weevil Underwood has, its attack is up to 2200! And its defence is kept secret!" His eyes shone with such energy and passion he looked five years younger.

"Sure, let's do that," I agreed, deciding after all not to mention I just beat Weevil. No need to piss off a rabid fan, who knows what they're capable of.

The testing protocols were simple, I inserted the card into a Kaiba Corp machine, 'the highest grade' the suit assured me, 'for the best monsters.' The actual attack and defense values, 2250/2100. "This is amazing!" even the testing clerk marveled at the card, "that's over 90% of its maximum attack!"

"Are you sure you want to sell it?" The suit looked at the card longingly, now outright caressing it.

Of course I wanted to sell it, you moron. Why would I want a 7 star monster with 2400 attack (correction, maximum attack) and special effects that work more against me than for?

Outwardly, I was more professional, "I'm afraid I don't have a deck to go with this card, so I might as well sell this card and build up my deck."

"Smart," the clerk nodded, a short pink-haired girl with large eyes behind round glasses. She's kind of cute. Ughh, I shuddered, that had to be remnants of the old Ushio. "Most people only want stronger monsters, but you really need a team of monsters if you want to get to the very top."

"Well, if you're sure," the suit shrugged at what he apparently thought was my poor decision making, "right this way sir, would you like cash or direct deposit?"

"Actually, I'd rather trade it for monsters and spell cards." I answered, having planned this out a long time in advance, but making a slip of tongue, referring to spells as 'cards'. No amount of money is worth risking my life on a daily basis. I had managed to get around Basic Insect and get at Weevil, which means if my opponent had two monsters, he/she could, in theory, get around Spirit Reaper and attack me. While this is not how the game ever worked, I suspect it might be the case in this reality. Survival of the most prudent. I'd cry if I got killed by a Kuriboh.

The suit looked at the testing clerk for confirmation before offering, I guess she was higher up in this company that I thought. "10 % off, as a token of our appreciation for selling your card at Kaiba Corp."

Strong cards were a rare commodity here. I browsed the sales floor silently, suit, okay, his name is Larry, Larry followed me, having deposited the card into the KC vault, and handed me the exchanged credit. I would have whistled if I knew how, seven figures for a card? Sure it started with a one, but still. In this reality, the purchasing power of the Japanese dollar was similar to the American dollar, rather than the Japanese yen that I remembered, which meant the average annual income per person was around 60,000 per year. I better build up my deck soon 'cause you know Weevil Underwood is going to hate me for taking a ridiculous sum of money from him.

I could afford several of the lower attack monsters, but the stronger monsters (by my standards) like Summoned Skull, Dark Magician was still out of my price range. Not to mention Black Lustre Soldier or Big Koala, which was not even on the sales desks that I had access to.

I wanted to get it right the first time though, now that the monsters were real, I couldn't exchange and discard them as readily as before. I selected a number of level 4 monsters, the most expensive type I could afford.

That spell seminar turned out to be a total bust, but I came home elated. The tutors, I say tutors because there were three people teaching, in their teens, twenties and thirties respectively, who ranted on about how to meditate in battle, focus your energy, and combine your powers with your monsters. Wishy-washy stuff at best, but there're actually people who got it. I was one of them, because I found that I didn't need to meditate, or sense the power around me, or psychologically connect with my monsters, I just needed to silently recite the name of the spell (everybody else was still calling it the Tasokoff Effect, named after the guy who discovered it) and imagine the image of the card, and that was all it took. I didn't dare trying other magic in class, but I had an extremely good feeling.

My optimism was only half justified, as I tested each spell out on my new monsters. Owning a monster in the form of a card presents almost no energy drain to the host, but summoning one is highly demanded and maintaining a monster in the real (I'll call it real for now) world required constant energy supply. Most spells, especially equip spells, were not as demanding as summoning monsters, but much harder than simply maintain a monster in reality. Maintaining continuous spells seems as strenuous as maintaining monsters. I hadn't been able to try a lot of spells, like most of the monster and spell/trap destruction spells, or any of the traps. I figured it best not to repeatedly kill the creatures working for you, even if they did came back to life. I was concerned about my monsters leaking my private information to the outside, but none of them seemed capable to speech, and I was told they would obey orders completely, so I digressed for the moment, completely worn out, and passed out on the couch as soon as I called the last monster back to my deck.


	5. Chapter 5

5am the next morning, or as I liked to think of it, 5am that night, I heard loud banging at my door plus some words probably not suited for the clearly adolescent voice it came from. Grunting, I got up, and grunted again in annoyance when I realized that I was grunting. I've never grunted before, it was most unladylike, and it just wasn't within the range of sounds that I made! Usually I groaned or moaned, but the change in body obviously had some side effects.

So, grunting and not bothering get out of my pajamas, I opened the door. I looked around at the empty hallway, confused, then looked down at the source of the noise.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you, you big lump!" A kid not too much taller than Weevil, dressed all in green except for a red hat, was screaming at me. I must start reminding people, it doesn't work as well when you had to scream _up_ at your opponent.

"So," he slowed down a little when he saw that he had my attention, "you're the guy who beat Weevil last night."

I studied him curiously, it really wasn't a hard guess, "Rex Raptor?"

"Yep, it is I, Rex Raptor, and I'm here to take back Weevil's cards!" The kid puffed up proudly. "So give it!"

"Sorry," I shook my head, "sold it."

"Sold it? What do you mean you sold it?" Rex was starting to jump up and down again, at this rate, he should get a monkey deck rather than the dino deck he was using.

"Sold it to Kaiba Corp last night." I told him, half truthfully. Perfectly Ultimate Moth could only be summoned with Cocoon of Evolution, a fact that apparently nobody but Weevil knew, or at least admits to knowing. So I had planned on selling this knowledge, and the card, for a lot of money, only it would be best sold as a package with Petit Moth (300/200) and Cocoon of Evolution (0/2000), the latter of which I didn't see in Kaiba Corp last night, so I thought I'd wait a bit.

"Then give me all the money?" Rex Raptor definitely wasn't vicious enough to be a dinosaur, maybe a Chihuahua.

"Isn't that robbery?" I reminded him calmly, it was hard to be threatened by somebody half your size. Being 250lb, I studied him a little more, maybe he was less than 120 lb. He was only like 5'3 or something.

"Then I'll duel you for them!" Rex exclaimed, "You're a duelist, right? So I'll challenge you to a duel, for everything you have!"

I looked up such regulations in depth last night, which states that the challenger can bet up to half of his/her belongings in such a challenge, and the challenged party must match the bet, or become part of the bet themselves.

"I have," I paused to count on my fingers.

1 x Skilled Dark Magician

2 x Slate Warrior

2 x Gear Golem

2 x Copycat

2 x Breaker the Magical Warrior,

1 x Yata-Garasu

1 x D.D. Warrior Lady,

Oh, and that Perfect Ultimate Moth I didn't sell yet, that makes... 12 monsters.

Rex was growing impatient. "I have 12 monsters," I told him.

"All from selling Weevil's cards?" I nodded, "you lucky bastard!" He looked as mad as I had taken the cards from him. "No matter, they'll all be mine soon! So I'll bet thirteen of my best monsters!" So I would be included in the bet was the implied message.

I wasn't comfortable with the brutality of this society, but that wasn't something I could change. So thing being what they were, dueling Rex would be an excellent option to build up some good cards, before I have to face any real opponents.

"Great, let's get things officialised first." I agreed to his challenge, so we left for a dueling stadium, me walking and Rex riding a giant Meteor Dragon (lv 6, 1800/2000). Riding duel monsters were generally prohibited, except for flying monsters for duelists lv 4 and up, as long as it was at least 10 meters above ground. But as the regional champion, Rex Raptor had the privilege of riding one monster he designated (with size restrictions) on the road, and he choose Meteor Dragon.

I frowned at the gathering crowd, my advantages were not hard to see, and I would have preferred to keep them secret, but I guess that wasn't an option at this point.

I was immediately corrected.

By the time we went inside and officialised the duel, there was a clear option that allowed/denied spectators and allowed/denied video records. The more conservative option between the two duelists would be followed, so we have neither an audience nor video recording.

"Don't want everybody to see my dinos kicking your butt to next week?" Rex Raptor taunted, I suppose he wanted an audience.

I didn't have time to respond to any taunting, my duel last night with Weevil could only be described as under 'extenuating circumstances'. So this was my first official duel and I was frantically flipping through pages of the rulebook. Thankfully, there wasn't much to learn, just beat your opponent until they can't summon another monster to the field, whether it's because their magic was drained, or they have no monsters, or their LP reached zero, then you win. The stadium was something to get used to, two duelists stood at 1 meter high platforms at the opposite ends of the dueling field, which is about the size of four basketball courts. Everything else was roughly the Yugioh rules I remembered (from last night that is).

"How are you gonna get at me now, Ushio?" Rex shouted from the other end of the field, the only reason I could hear him was because of the microphones and speakers installed beside each platform.

"As the challenger," Rex Raptor did not deserve a banter-match before the beginning of the duel- that was reserved for stronger duelists. I flipped through the rulebook to the part about challenges, "As the challenger, you can go first." I read out of the book.

"Fine then, if you want to lose that badly. I summon my Blackland Fire Dragon (1500/800) in attack mode! But since it's the first move, I can't attack, so you can survive a couple more seconds before my dino stomps you out."

"Skilled Dark Magician," I called loudly, as their master and coach, I had to appear confident, "attack his dragon!" While ordering the attack, I quickly laid three traps down on the field silently. Laying magic cards down allowed for less energy when activating them.

I watched with interest as Blackland Fire Dragon was attacked, flickered in and out of existence, then exploded into thousands of shards of light before disappearing. Now, it's obviously unreasonable to describe light as 'shards' but it was the best description I could come up with.

"Oh yeah, you think that's tough?" Rex should do less taunting and more summoning, unless he was buying time until he recovers and could summon another monster, in which case, good strategy.

"If you don't make a move, I will," I stated into the microphone softly but firmly, the implied threat thick in the air. Truth be told, it would take me a good minute before I could summon another monster.

"Fine then, come forth, Meteor Dragon, destroy his sorry excuse for a magician!" Rex seemed to be able to summon monsters faster than I could. I frowned. If this is Rex Raptor, how much stronger would Joey Wheeler, Seto Kaiba or Maximillian Pegasus be? I never forgot that my chief enemy was also the main character for this show, Yami Yugi (or I guess both Yugis depending on how you looked at it).

Meteor Dragon's attack was 1800, I remember that from the Duel Monsters index I read last night, while Skilled Dark Magician's attack was 1900, but that was only the theoretical maximum strength, it's unreasonable to assume that a monster I just bought essentially off the rack would be as well trained as that of the regional champion. Meteor Dragon being level 6 also gave it the advantage of increasing its attack strength much faster than level 4 monsters.

So, "come forth, powers of darkness, strengthen my mage!" I activated the Dark Energy that I had on the field, just learned it yesterday, it had better pay off. And it probably did. Because of my spell or otherwise, I didn't know, but my magician emerged unscathed, while Rex's dragon was no more.

"Next, I'll bring out, my Slate Warrior," I really only have three monsters with good attack, so I didn't have a choice. "Attack Rex Raptor now!"

"Not so fast!" Rex shouted. I was confused for a second. It was my turn, there were no traces of spell or trap cards previously laid on the field, what could he possibly do?

Then I saw, Rex slit his own palm open and waved it in front of him. Instead of trickling down his wrist, his blood flew out of his hands and into the air like a mist, before disappearing and being absorbed by a truly incredible beast. Covered in dark, metallic armor, the beast stood at 6 meters tall, probably 4 meters wide, to put things into perspective, that's like a two-story building. It gave off a deafening roar as its blood-filled eyes focused on me, sending a chill down my spine.

"How? How is this possible?" I stepped back out of instinctive self-preservation, nearly falling off of the narrow platform if it weren't for the railings surrounding me. But I was truly surprised because it was my turn! And he didn't have any tributes on the field! How did he summon Red Eyes Black Dragon? And more importantly still, if we weren't following the yugioh rules I remembered, what rules were we following?

Slate Warrior attacked later, so it was able to avoid the blast, but my Skilled Dark Magician had gone in too far when Rex's dragon was summoned, and didn't have time to retreat before the molten fire from the dragon's breath hit him. Even though he was facing away from me, I thought I saw the look of pure agony as the flames engulfed my mage, and I could have sworn I smelt molten flesh. I was a little sick, especially when my eyes caught a glimpse of Waboku that I placed earlier on the field. He didn't have to get destroyed, not if I had reacted in time. But now that he is, I can't even bring him back, not without revealing I knew Monster Reborn, a highly difficult and secret spell that the previous Ushio had no way of learning. At the same time, I could feel my life force draining, I imagine it's what it would feel like if you were about to die.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Rex was bent forward, holding onto the railing just to stand. I heard his rapid shallow gasps from the speakers, as though breathing was too much work for him. "Now my Red Eyes, destroy that pile of plates!"

"Not so fast," I used the exact words Rex did a couple of seconds ago. Not announcing my spell, I added the Axe of Despair onto my Slate Warrior. "Now, Slate Warrior, attack his dragon!" I cried out as confidently as I could manage.

"That little axe can't save you, Red Eyes, attack!"

Both monsters followed commands exactly. Red Eyes aimed quickly at the tiny humanoid creature at its feet. My level 4 monster, being no more than two meters tall, jumped twenty feet into the air before attacking, slicing Red Eyes Black Dragon and its dragon fire attack cleanly in two.

Rex Raptor clearly took more of a hit this time than before, and collapsed onto the duelist platform. "How? How could you have beaten my Red Eyes?"

I didn't give him time to think that through. I wasn't ready to summon another monster yet, but not being turn-based, I could certainly attack. "Slate Warrior, attack Rex Raptor directly!" I would have called out the attack if I knew, but I didn't. I didn't review that far yet. Slate Warrior leaped up onto the duelist platform and simply kicked Rex off. Rex fell of the platform unconscious.

In retrospect, that second attack might not have been entirely necessary, or merited. But I was stressed, and scared, and possibly scarred for life. So in the heat of the moment, I ordered an attack. So I was glad that Slate Warrior didn't actually perform a full attack, which might very well have killed the kid. Duelists dying in battle wasn't unheard of, it wasn't even rare. It's estimated that there's one human death every 157 duels, but I didn't want human blood on my hands if I could avoid it.

"Good job," I struggled to climb down the platform that I jumped onto at the beginning of the duel. Slate Warrior walked up and knelt at the side of the platform as he helped me down. "Good job," I patted him on the shoulder, "for the duel and for not killing that kid." My warrior nodded, his clear blue eyes never once leaving me.

I tried to walk to Rex Raptor, but wobbled dangerously with my first step. Not trusting my legs to carry me 100 feet, I motioned to the earth-based fiend, "grab his deck for me, alright?" Slate Warrior nodded before getting up to obey the command.

So they obviously understood human language, why can't they speak? Was it just a vocal cord thing? Putting that aside as a question to study later, I pulled out my (still pathetic excuse for a) deck, rifling through till I found Skilled Dark Magician. Its card looked unscathed, as did the magician in the image, but I still thought it smelt of flesh and bone slowly being melted, rather than burned, by molten lava.

"Skilled Dark Magician," I said in as loud a voice as I could muster, which when I heard it, wasn't more than a whisper. The card flashed, and as always, the image turned blank and the mage materialized in front of me.

Before he could kneel, I grabbed him by the arm, looking at him, feeling his body, sniffing him and lifting him up just to make sure he was real. He was slightly taller than me, about 6'3, 6'4. All duel monster must tower over Yugi, my mind wandered randomly as it relaxed, seeing the apparently unharmed magician in my hands.

"Wait, are you the same monster I bought last night?" My monster nodded, though his expression clearly indicated that he didn't understand the question.

"So he didn't die and you didn't replace him?" The man (correction, monster, but he looked so human) I was still grabbing by both arms shook his head, wincing a little at the pain I was no doubt causing him. Oh God, the pain! He was just burnt alive by dragon flames.

'Did it hurt when you die?' that question was at the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't voice it. 'Does it hurt when you die every time at the hands of monsters stronger than you? Do you wish you could leave and not be bound by the confines of your man-made prison that we call a card?' But I knew it wasn't going to make a difference, not to me. I needed monsters to survive, I needed to win duels to make sure I would not be trampled on, enslaved or killed by whatever wacko duelist that decided I was easy pickings, I needed to make sure even Yami Yugi can no longer erase me from the face of this earth. Sure, he was the protagonist, but surely I'm from a higher plane. I could be god!

So it didn't make a difference whether my monsters bled, hurt or died, repeatedly, while in my service. It didn't matter enough. So I didn't ask. I did let go of his arms, instead putting my around him and hugged him tightly, hiding my face so he wouldn't see my powerless desperation. The mage stood still, leaving his arms by his side while I put all my guilt and apologies into this wordless gesture he would probably never understand.

"First duel?" a paramedic approached me, smiling. They had already tended to Rex, and he was just looking at me to make sure.

"No," I shook my head. I had made a decision when I came into this world that I would not lie if I could avoid it. I would be lying enough as it is, anymore and I would almost certainly confuse them, "but the first time I lost a monster."

"Ah," he smiled comfortingly, "the first time is always the hardest, but it gets easier, you'll see."

'Easier for whom?' I secreted seethed but didn't voice the question, no reason to take it out on him. "Do you play too?"

"Nah," he shook his head, "never got up the guts. Had a couple of friends who did though, now they're either dead or rich."

I managed to smile back at that, "risk and reward, right?"

"Okay, so I can see that you're doing alright, do you feel like walking around?" The paramedic saw I was more emotionally stable, and move on to the second part of his examination.

"I think so," using Skilled Dark Magician as support, I stood up and walked around a little, first slowly, then more confidently and comfortably. I was utterly exhausted in more ways than one, but if my monsters, who fought and burned and died, were still standing, there's no reason I shouldn't be.

"Good," satisfied with my health, the paramedic patted me on the shoulder before he left, "and if you need anything, our office is downstairs in B127."

Of course there would be a clinic near the duel stadium, it's only practical.

Seeing the other human had left, Slate Warrior showed me the deck he took from Rex Raptor.

I scanned Rex's deck, mostly half-assed dragon-based monsters and a few non-dragon cards worth taking. I looked at our pre-duel agreement again, I was entitled to 13 of the 20 cards he brought. I decided to trade away the cards I took from Rex's deck. I just put their master in the hospital, they must resent me. And if they didn't resent the man who put their master in a coma, I didn't want them.

I scanned each card I took into the machine before putting it into my deck, then handed the rest to the duel modulator, who basically deals with the legal and medical aspects of each duel.

"Come on, guys," I motioned to the two monsters still by my side, it felt wrong to immediately put them back into cards after they just fought for me, "let's blow this popsicle stand." I don't know why I said that. I say weird things when I'm stressed/tired. "Which reminds me, do you guys eat?"

I was greeted with uncertain looks as they followed me out of the stadium, "you know, eating? Food?" I opened my mouth and pretended to eat a sandwich. A chuckle beside me reminded me of how stupid that must have looked.

"They _can_ eat," one of the guys doing routine post-duel damage check-up said, it seemed like everybody knew more about this duel monsters thing than I did. "But they don't need to, and it doesn't help. They just take up more energy to digest the food and get rid of it."

I nodded my thanks, and walked confidently out of the stadium, my two monster in toll.


	6. Chapter 6

My monsters and I pushed aside the gathered crowd into a taxi on the side of the road. "Apple Game Shop," I said, leaning back in the seat, I saw a Cocoon of Evolution there last night. Both my monsters had gone back into their respective cards when I entered the car, presumably to give me more space

Luckily, that card had not yet been sold.

"You're back!" The clerk all but gushed this time, "you, you were the one who defeated Mr. Underwood last night, weren't you?"

"I got lucky," I said the truth everybody was thinking. "I'm looking for a Cocoon of Evolution." I got right to the point, not wanting to deal with more questions. My victory against Weevil really wasn't anything to be proud of, and I was terrified just thinking about it. If he had taken me seriously at all, I would be insect feed right now, or wishing I were insect feed. I had no doubt that little runt was fully capable of murder, especially when he was above the law.

"Of course, of course," the clerk eagerly led me to the back counter, "you're looking for cards good for an insect deck right now, aren't you?"

"That's right," I hadn't thought of that excuse, but might as well go with it.

"Well, we have a good collection-"

"Just show me the Cocoon of Evolution," I interrupted.

"Of course, of course," Now much more pleasant than last night, the man took out a wooden case and lifted the plastic covering. "Actual defense 1800." He placed the card into an electronic reader on one side. I should get one of those for my cards. I still wouldn't know how strong opponent monsters really were, but it would help.

"Do you accept trades?" I asked, remembering that I didn't actually have any money.

"Of course! What cards would you like to trade for it?"

"Koumari Dragon?" I asked carefully. I wasn't entirely sure about card pricing in this world, but for my deck, I'd think the two cards were of similar values.

"I'm afraid not," he actually managed to sound regretful, "as powerful a card as Koumari Dragon is, its attack just isn't high enough." I pondered over the cards I was willing to part with without making it obvious I had already defeated Rex Raptor, "I do have Giant Soldier of Stone." I let that sentence trail off. Being lv 3, mobile and with an attack of 1300, Giant Soldier of Stone was obviously much more valuable than Cocoon of Evolution.

"I'll trade you two Cocoon of Evolution for a Giant Stone Soldier." The clerk hesitated before deciding.

"I have two Giant Soldiers of Stone," I paused to consider his offer, "if you have four Cocoons of Evolution and throw in a Morphing Jar, we've got a deal."

Apple Game Shop obviously specialized in insect cards, to be able to produce 4 Cocoon of Evolution on demand. I didn't know what Morphing Jar did in this world, but I wouldn't be the first to study it. Since the similar looking 'Morphing Jar #2' had its effects discovered, many people had been trying to find the special effect for Morphing Jar.

Leaving Apple Game Shop, I went directly to Kaiba Corp Dueling Emporium. Yes, Kaiba's obviously not great that naming things. He named the duel disk after all- Duel, Disk.

"Mr.-" Larry saw me and walked up enthusiastically.

"Ushio," I replied, I forgot that I didn't even introduce myself last time.

"What can I help you with today, Mr. Ushio?" Larry was friendly despite his deceptively imposing outfit and the attitude his colleagues were giving to their customers. I guess it depends on the sales associate and it depends on the customer.

"I have a Perfectly Ultimate Moth (3500/3000, lv8)," I began. He didn't even blink. He must have known what I took from Weevil by now. I mean, if Rex Raptor knew, Kaiba Corp obviously knew as well. "And I know how to summon it." I finished the sentence and was pleased to see his eyes widen in shock.

"Su-summon?" he sputtered "you do?"

I looked at him, not bothering to repeat myself. It's what I do when I'm trying to look confident, I talk less.

"Please, Mr. Ushio, right this way." He quickly showed me up the stairs, a restricted area for higher level duelists.

I followed him up the stairs, studying the so-called 'stronger' duelists. To my intense disappointment, I didn't find a single one I could recognize. A lot of multi-colored hair, I ran my finger through my jet-black hair with pride, but no familiar faces.

" , this is our Duel Monsters Managing Director," my guide introduced me to another man in a black suit.

"Please, call me Roland." I eyed the thirty-something man carefully, short dark-green hair, small pencil thin mustache, he looked very familiar. Was this Roland the Kaiba Corp lackey Roland? There was no way to be sure, Roland was a common enough name and I didn't remember their last names at all.

"Tetsu Ushio, it's a pleasure." As I shook his hands, I made sure to stand far enough away without being impolite. My height makes normal conversation distances seem like I was encroaching on the other person's personal space.

"Now, Mr. Ushio," Roland looked me straight in the eye as we sat down, and asked almost accusingly, "I was given to understand that you have a Perfectly Ultimate Moth?"

"That is correct," His tactics might have otherwise seemed intimidating, but this was Roland! Kaiba's 'what-are-we-supposed-to-do Mr. Kaiba' lackey Roland. I allowed my lips to curl into a smirk before answering, "And how to summon it."

"Perfectly Ultimate Moth is an extremely rare card, you might never get another card like it ever again," Roland never broke eye contact and I didn't bother looking away. Like I said, had somebody else tried this on me, I might have been intimidated. "What makes you want to sell it?"

"As you might be aware," I decided not to reveal the monster's weakness just yet, which would be playing into his rhythm. "I didn't have much of a deck until quite recently." Roland nodded, okay, having an old (ish) man staring at me was beginning to feel creepy. "And I'm afraid I just don't have the cards to support a monster like Perfectly Ultimate Moth. Plus," I chuckled, "I'm not a huge fan of bugs."

"Well, we'd be more than happy to take it off your hands," Roland finally broke eye contact, apparently deciding that I had nothing to hide. No wonder he was just a lackey. "Of course, there is the issue of price." He took out a binder of historic duel monster prices. I was impressed, I didn't know they were that thorough. "I will be honest, Mr. Ushio. Duel monsters this powerful is rarely seen and even more rarely sold, but earlier sales of The Masked Beast (3200/1800) and Black Lustre Soldier (3000/2500) might give us some idea."

"Ritual monsters are so powerful that they cannot be directly summoned, as it demands too much of the duelist," I frowned at the prices listed. Not that they weren't terrifying long and worth more than any card should legally be allowed to be worth, I just didn't want Kaiba Corp, and especially not Kaiba, to think I could be ripped off. "But even with the appropriate spell cards, they are the most energy-consuming cards in the game, making their target a very small niche market." I made the slip of tongue again, referring to spells as 'cards'. If Roland noticed, he didn't show it.

"And Perfectly Ultimate Moth-" Roland dragged the last syllable out, analyzing my every move.

"-Does not require as vigorous a process." I gladly finished his sentence. "I will say this, it will be difficult to summon, but it does not require nearly as much magical energy as ritual cards. And no, it's not a ritual monster." I blatantly crossed that off the list.

"We at Kaiba Corp have a protocol for such high-level monsters," Roland seemed satisfied with my response. "I presume that you would like to trade this card instead of sell it?" At my confirmation, he pointed to another suit waiting nearby, "You, get briefcases number 2, 4 and 7." The suit bowed before leaving.

"If you would come this way, Mr. Ushio," Roland stood up and guided me to a longer corridor, "let's go somewhere a little safer."

I looked at him suspiciously. This _was_ Kaiba Corp, after all, I wouldn't exactly put them on the top of my trustworthy list. It wasn't above them to make somebody disappear.

"I assure you, Mr Ushio," Roland saw my hesitation, "I simply wish to conduct business at a more private location, surely that would be your wish as well."

"My first wish is to get out of here alive," I gave him a half-smirk, "and I really didn't think this trade is something that Kaiba Corp plan on hiding behind closed doors." Getting a powerful card like this is excellent publicity, plus, everybody knows I got the card, so it wouldn't be hard to figure out who I sold it to.

"As you wish," he relented and sat back down. Immediately, the suits standing at attention mobilized, the personnel were armed, and numerous monsters were summoned around me. I reached out a hand to poke a Neo the Magic Swordsman next to me, I don't know why, but I always liked that card, it was one of the first half-decent monster card I had in my physical deck. In another lifetime now.

"He's yours if you want him," Roland interrupted my nostalgic musings, I immediately pulled my hand back and sat at attention.

"No, no, just curious." I scratched my head. For all the pretense, I wasn't used to doing business, and certainly not business that, if the previous indications were true, involved 8, 9 digit transactions.

"Mr. Ushio," the previous suit arrived with three more suits, each with a briefcase chained to their wrists and followed by a Sword Stalker.

The briefcases opened to reveal 20 cards each, laid out on red velvet and held in place by (later I learned to be bullet-proof) glass.

"If you like, Mr. Ushio," Roland began, "You can choose any of these combinations." True to his words, they were respectively Light, Dark and Earth-based cards, which made me wonder what the other suitcases must contain. "Or exchange them between each suitcase, or name a certain card you like if it's not in the selection. Within reason of course." He sounded a little like Kaiba, but the lack of complete arrogance was his fatal flaw.

"Does it come with how to summon these monsters as well?" I asked. Ritual cards needed ritual spells, which had to be learnt, as there were no more spell cards.

"Ah, well, the ritual spells come separately, but we would be happy to trade for them. I'm afraid there are cards like Great Moth," I hadn't even noticed Great Moth before, "that we're not entirely sure how to summon yet."

I picked and choose to my content, which meant to my best abilities. Most of the stronger cards looked familiar at least, and I know most of the effects, if they had any, but to remember the attack and defense was asking too much.

I picked 15 monsters from the three brief cases before stopping. My deck had always been beat-down, based on level 4 or below monsters, while all of these monsters had 2000 attack. It was great, it just wasn't what I needed. I may also need to exchange these monsters for an exact duplicate, I don't trust Kaiba Corp.

My monster selections were listed below:

Summoned Skull (2500/1200) x 1

CyberTech Alligator x 1 (2500/1600), I wanted to take two, but Roland said no.

Gilford the Lightening x 1 (2800/2400, lv8), three tributes allows this monster to destroy all monsters on your opponent's side of the field. The strongest monster they had, I'm surprised they let me take it. Might not be able to exchange this, seeing how rare it is

Buster Blader x1 (2600/2300, lv7), might not be able to exchange him either

Mystical Beast Serket (2500/2000, lv6) x3, only viable with King's Temple of the field, gains 500 attack with each monster it destroyed. The only monster they had in triplicate, I suspect they didn't know how to summon it either. But now that spells are chanted and not drawn, this card becomes so much more powerful.

Suijin (2500/2400, lv7) x1, can change attacking monster's attack to zero once while this card remains face up on the field, I don't think they knew this

Kazejin (2400/2200, lv7) x1, can change attacking monster's attack to zero once while this card remains face up on the field, KC probably doesn't know this either.

Jinzo (2400/1500, lv 6) x1, negates all trap cards on the field, I wondered if they knew about effect.

Archfield of Gilfer (2200/2500, lv 6) x1, when in the graveyard, can be equipped to one monster and decrease its attack by 500

The Fiend Megacyber (2200/1200, lv 6) x1, can be special summoned if there're two more monsters on the other side of the field. Might come in handy if I end up ambushed.

Dark Magician Girl (2000/1700, lv 6) x1, increases attack by 300 for each Dark Magician or Magician of Black Chaos in the graveyards,

Helpoemer (2000/1400, lv 5) x1, if sent to grave as a result of battle, opponent discards one card from hand at the end of each battle phase.

Great Moth (2600/2500) x1 , I only took this because Roland said a lot of the other cards were out of the question given what I already took, so it was this or Sword Stalker.

They didn't have any Dark Magicians and I didn't ask. I later learned that due to the large number of spells associated with Dark Magician and the Magician of Black Chaos, those two cards were considered especially valuable.

I then requested to look at the weaker monsters, naturally, to build a complete deck.

I picked up

Gemini Elf (1900/900) x 3,

Luster Dragon (1900/1600) x 3, will sell the ones I took from Rex Raptor

Reflector Bounder (1700/1000) x 1, will first deduct attack of attacking monster from opponent LP, but destroyed after being attacked. they only had one.

Skilled Dark Magician (1900/1700) x2

and

Slate Warrior (1900/400) x1

Basically all the 1900 atk monsters except Vorse Raider and Spear Dragon. They even threw in the Gear Golem I was looking at earlier.

Roland agreed that I could take these ten cards instead of 5 with higher attack.

I was extremely pleased while looking at my newest acquisitions, almost forgetting the mental scars from my earlier duel. Was my deck complete? Not nearly. I didn't have nearly enough effect monsters or lower-level monsters. But I was armed enough that I probably won't die, and that's what was important.

"To summon Ultimate Perfect Moth," I began, immediately, all suited retreated, as did the monsters, leaving a 5 meter clear-zone. I remained unfazed. "You need to first summon Petite Moth," Roland gasped. "Then equip to it Cocoon of Evolution. After some time, you would be able to summon Perfectly Ultimate Moth." as there was no 'turns' here, I wasn't sure how long it would be, "the exact time would vary for each duelists, but I think it's around the time it takes to summon 7 monsters. Of course, it wouldn't affect the actual summoning of each monster in the meantime." I assured the red-faced Roland. Ultimately Perfect Moth was obviously much more useful in this world, chatting, taunting could easily pass five, ten minutes. Presuming that the duelist required one minute to summon a monster like I did. "Feel free to test this out," I offered.

"Please wait here while I acquire the necessary cards," Roland said, standing up.

"We can test it right here," I took out my Cocoon of Evolution, prepared beforehand. I saw the understanding in his eyes, well he's right, I didn't trust him out of my sight until I got out of this building and preferably acquainted with the monsters I just got.

So we waited around chatting about the weather as Kaiba Corp staff went to test out the card. Naturally, the test went as planned. I offered Great Moth to him, "and you can summon this the same way, just waiting for a shorter amount of time."

"And what do you want for this?" Roland looked at me knowingly.

"Money," I was being blunt, I know. But we've been chatting a while and he probably knows too much about me as it is, why bother hiding the small stuff. "And for these too," I handed him the remaining three Cocoon of Evolution.

"As you wish, Mr. Ushio." The middle-aged men wrote down a number on a piece of paper, I nodded, hiding my elation. That was more than double what I got for Insect Queen!

I left Kaiba Corp highly suspicious of anything that moved, thankfully, nothing happened on the way home. I wondered if Kaiba Corp was just biding their time, it seemed to suspicious if somebody sold them cards, then immediately gets robbed. But if they didn't target me outside, I was probably safe indoors, at least for a little while.

"Guys!" I summoned Slate Warrior and Skilled Dark Magician again, hugging both. I wasn't great at this 'being-manly' business yet, and I had an exhausting day.

Both knelt as soon as they were summoned, so I hugged air instead.

"Hi guys," I said awkwardly. Both bowed a little deeper, though I could see Skilled Dark Magician sneaking a peek around, probably looking for enemies.

"So," I sat cross-legged down on the floor in front of them. I had thought about asking them to get up, but I also liked to maintain their obedience. I wasn't sure if this kneeling thing would be counterproductive, but I decided against changing anything for the time being. "We're getting some new additions to the deck," I decided, after much thought, to start this like a casual business meeting. I should probably get one of those long tables, and a larger place too if I was going to run my deck like a business. I mean they're clearly intelligent. Maybe they can't communicate yet, but that could be due to vocal cords, language barriers, etc. That's something we could get over. Treating them like cards or holograms would be unfair.

Both monsters acted like they didn't hear me, I paused a good thirty seconds for a response, still nothing. This is where they were supposed to agree, or protest. I missed the way Skilled Dark Magician looked at me earlier like I was the only thing in the world, not romantically of course, but in a more pragmatic way. I was forced to move on. "So I thought, umm, with a bigger team, I could get to know you guys better and we could set up some house rules."

This time, I did get a response. Both monsters looked up at me, if still emotionless. "Right," I was encouraged by this development, "I know that you guys can't speak, our language I mean," I was quick to add, "but you can clearly understand me, so nod, or shake your head, and maybe later we can discussing learning how to read and write?"

Neither monster reacted to my suggestions. I read somewhere that when a conversation turns silent, the first one to break it loses the upper hand, but I was the only one who could talk right now, so I guess that didn't count.

I really should have prepared a list of questions for this, I thought as I got out a pencil (couldn't find a pen) and a notebook.

"So, let's continue where we left off," saying things this way might make it seem less abrupt and novel, helping them to relax, I hoped. "So you guys are physically capable of eating." I got nods, though a little uncertain from Skilled Dark Magician's side.

"Do you like eating?" I had to ask that. Eating was one of the greatest pleasures of life, eating and sex of course. The two monsters looked at each other, then at me, uncertainly, Slate Warrior nodded while Skilled Dark Magician shook his head.

"Is there food where you came from?" Again, Slate Warrior nodded while Skilled Dark Magician shook his head. Okay, this isn't working very well, maybe they don't understand me as well as I thought.

But I did need to get to know them, I needed a reward/punishment system if they were to function efficiently.

"Wait here," I said as I climbed to my feet, they didn't look like they were going anywhere to begin with, but not saying anything made me look like a jerk.

I returned with beer and cold pizza. Yes, I drink, both this life time and the last one, though I hadn't been a beer fan before. The pizza was takeout from last night, I had fallen asleep before I got up the energy to eat anything.

I placed the food on the coffee table, should probably have gotten them into the kitchen but oh well, the familiar environment was probably good for them, I reassured myself.

"Get over here," I meant to say it in a bro kind of way, but it came out more like an order, I winced inside. "Try this, tell me what you think."

If food doesn't work, we're moving on to cigars and hookers. I was _not_ kidding, there was only so many ways to keep somebody happy when they're from a different world, the basic survival instincts are usually the easiest to satiate.

Thankfully, I did not need to get either. I hated smoking, and strippers would be a little odd given my current body-change predicament.

Both ravaged the cold pizza, Slate Warrior also downed a couple of beers, but he didn't seem drunk (or in pain) so I let him be.

I grabbed my notebook as a serious afterthought occurred to me, "I should really test them for allergies, and what human foods they can eat! God, I could've killed them both!" As recent evidence might suggest, I wouldn't do great in management. On the plus side, Flour, tomatoes, cheese and pork seemed okay for these guys. Individual experimentations was obviously out of the question, and possibly fatal, so I had to look this stuff up.

The previous Ushio wasn't huge on books, to the point that he didn't have a single one in his apartment, not even a textbook. Computers didn't seem to have been completely personalized yet, so I had to actually go to the library and borrow books. God that takes me back! I needed to look up Duel Monster intelligence levels, communication, eating, sleeping and all of that. Uggh, work! Plus, I should probably at least check up on school. I was in the same grade as Yugi but not the same class, so maybe I'll be okay? I decided to leave school till later, like maybe next year? or better yet, three years later after Yugi graduates, or 4, 5 years later after Yami moves on. Or does he move on? I mean he appeared in the capsule monster thing, then again in GX. I wonder what actually happened to him, and now that this world is completely messed up, it's even harder to tell. I'll leave that for later too, I decided, things would work themselves out eventually, right? Even if you're the villain?

Not having a car, I took half an hours walking to the library, avoiding all main roads to avoid Yugi Motou. I had flying monsters that could carry me, but I hadn't leveled up enough to ride them. Almost nobody checked these things apparently, but better safe than sorry, anonymity is my key to staying alive right now. Anonymity, strong monsters and power.

I spent three hours looking up various aspects of duel monster living conditions and traditions, there really wasn't as many as you'd think, considering this world literally revolved around duel monsters. Most books discussed how to win duels, like how to summon a monster with the least magic, and how to best command your monster. I eventually found a single book on duel monster feeding, and a couple more on their language skills. Not bothering to read it, I took it home. I'd feel much safer at home, even though, truth to be told, I probably wasn't much safer in private than public.

Walking back, I felt a little better. It was dark, the street lamps were mostly broken in this part of town, so I was almost impossible to recognize. Sure, there might be thugs who followed me since I left Kaiba Corp, but those people wouldn't be Yugi Motou, and that's what was important.

Chaos and commotion ensued, a panicked crowd rushed towards me. Not sure if I could outrun the crowd, not sure if I wanted to outrun the crowd, I climbed up a tree in somebody's backyard that had branches sticking out. Hurray for upper body strength.

The fact is, as a duelist in this world, there were a lot of perks, but with it did come a social responsibility. As I read from Ushio's memories, occasional (okay, frequent) gaps may occur between the Duel Monster's Realm and the Human Realm. Duel monsters are irrevocably drawn to the light in the human world, but once here without a master, the lack of magical energy drives them into an insane rampage, often compared to a dog with rabies. Of course, they could do a lot more damage. The worst case scenario occurred several decades ago, when a Magician of Black Chaos and a Zoa (2600/1900, lv 7) crossed together. They spread horror over western United States, and Mexico because 5% smaller due to the amount of land they sent underwater.

So I stayed up the tree to see which monster came out, I didn't have to wait long. It was a herd of Mammoth of the Graveyard (1200/800, lv 3), not particularly strong, but each stood at 10 feet tall and 15 feet long, they are quite resistant to mortal attacks, and with 8 in this small herd, it was more than enough to do some serious damage.

I obviously couldn't just leave, but I also needed to finish this quickly before it attracts any serious attention.

"Go, Cyber Jar" I aimed Cyber Jar at the dead center of the pack. If there were any humans there, they'd be stomped to death already. Cyber Jar's explosion incapacitated 5 of the 8 mammoth, the remaining three looked for the direction of attack, and charged towards me. "Gear Golem, defend!" It was the first time I summoned Gear Golem, and its small size surprised me. It did have the convenient function of hovering in air, so it didn't crush any running humans. When my second Slate Warrior was summoned, the mammoth herd was destroyed. The whole ordeal took no more than 3 minutes, hopefully not enough time for anybody to get trampled to death, 'cause I'm not staying to find out. The last thing I needed was my name in the paper.

I rushed across the crowd, pretending to look for a lost brother, and most people tried to let me through. And I wasn't the only one, numerous calls, of happiness or desperation rang out from the crowds. I didn't see anybody on the ground, and the crowd was calm enough to make way for other people, so that was probably a good sign.

Nobody paid me a second look as I made my way out of the crowd and into a dark alley, or so I thought.

"Kid!" A gruff, half-drunk voice called in front of me.

It took me a minute before I realized he was calling me, I hadn't been referred as a kid in so long, and I never thought of Ushio as a kid.

"Yeah?" I paused to look at the blond man standing in front of me, reeking of cigarettes and cheap alcohol. Probably in his forties, though you really can't tell when somebody had been addicted, possibly to stronger substances that I'm not smelling.

"Nice thing you did back there," the man walked out from the shadows, I could now see his face. He might have been good looking before age, the booze and whatever else got to him. Now he was just a haggard middle-aged man with eyes filled with desperation and insanity. Even when paying a compliment, he looked in no ways pleasant, but I smiled anyways.

"Thanks, just doing my part," I didn't need to say that, I didn't necessarily think it, but it would help differentiate me from the previous Ushio, in case this guy talked to anybody.

"Just got started, huh?" He pointed to my wrist. As mentioned before, all duelists had a small duel-disk like device, it could be used for hold cards, but most importantly includes their information, like which level they were at. Mine had a large red 0. I have to wait a month to be promoted to level 1, during which I must have at least 3 officialised duels, win or lose, I had to prove that I was capable of sustaining monsters in the real world.

"Yeah," I was getting more suspicious, his duel disk shone with a green 2. "Just started," I paused, it was past midnight, "literally two days ago."

"Care to save another life?" his whole countenance changed as he sneered and dragged something out of the shadows. It took me a minute to recognize that humanoid form as another human rather than a duel monster, 20s I'd guess, maybe a little younger, it's hard to tell in the dark.

"What do you mean?" I backed off, summoning Slate Warrior behind me.

"It's simple," He would have looked pretty hot if he didn't always have that sneer on, too bad. "We duel, if you win, you get the kid, and if I win, I get one of your monsters." He eyed Slate Warrior greedily.

"You're betting me some kid?" I asked incredulously, for the first time in this world, I was actually rendered speechless "How-, how is this possible? How is this possibly legal?" Okay, that was a stupid question, obviously, this guy wasn't looking for legal- he was just a drunk trying to extort some cash out of passers-by.

"It's legal 'cause I'm his dad," he actually answered me, which made me even more confused. Sure, Japans was a traditional country, but it had never gone this far since it because civilized, right?

"What difference does that make?" I asked cautiously. The kid on the ground had managed to sit up, leaning against the wall. Judging from the hacking cough and blood spatters on the ground, he needed to go to a hospital, a couple of hours ago. My best guess was he sat up because the blood in his lungs was making it hard to breath, but when who knows what other damages he could've given himself when he sat up?

"He's a duelist too, see?" Indeed, there was a duel disk on that kid's wrist also, level 2. "And as his dad, I can duel for him, and I can bet whatever I want."

"So you're betting your own son on a card game?!" I had a great dad, like a _really_ great dad, who believed that girls should be spoiled. I've heard of horrible fathers but this was really new.

"He needs money for the hospital bills," The man almost laughed at my face, now no doubt twisted with anger and disgust. "All I ask is $500, no, $1000, and then we'll be out of your hair. Otherwise, I'd have to duel you for your monsters, so I can have the money to treat my dearly beloved kid." For the last part, he spoke in a high-pitched voice in a mockery of sounding sweet. Bullshit, $1000 wasn't going to even scratch the amount of money he'd need to treat this kid, but if he had any decent monster, selling it would probably cover any hospital bills.

"And if I win, I get the kid?" I confirmed, glaring at him intently.

"Sure, but if I win, I get your Slate Warrior." Behind the obvious greed, I could also hear the gears turning in his head as he calculated each duel strategy.

"Huh, you recognized it, I'm impressed." I nodded my approval, I guess this guy wasn't as incompetent as he looked.

"I was-" I could tell he was going to start bragging, then he glanced at the kid on the ground and stopped himself, "forget it, let's duel."

We both registered the duel via wireless connections in our duel disks, so it would be recognized as official. Then he started.

"Banisher of Light, defend!" He called out, retreating further into the shadows and dragging his son with him.

It was kind of weird to start a duel with defense position monsters, especially when he's the one who demanded the duel. I didn't have anything that could defeat it outright, not counting the Kaiba Corp monsters I just got and still didn't trust, so I decided to try Slate Warrior.

"Slate Warrior, attack his Banisher of Light!" I ordered. My surroundings remained deadly quiet save for my own voice that echoed back to me. This guy picked a good dueling spot.

"Blastosphere, block his attack!" As Blastosphere leeched itself onto my Slate Warrior, I realized what he was about to do. At 1900 (or a little less) attack points, Slate Warrior would take most of my life points if it were to blow up, and if my life points were indeed 2000. I didn't know and I wasn't inclined to find out. I was more concerned if there were others lurking in the shadows waiting to attack, so I had to preserve my life points. "Cyber Jar, in attack mode!" Cyber Jar's special effects were triggered, blowing up all monsters on the field, I felt a sudden surge of energy, which must be the 'draw five more cards' part! I wondered if any monsters would become much easier to summon, but now having 30+ monsters, I didn't have time to test each one.

We both paused for a second, debating our next move, he decided first. "Gazelle, King of Mythical Beast, attack!"

So I responded in kind, "Golem Gear, defend me against his Gazelle," Golem Gear flew out to hit Gazelle directly on the nose, driving the monster back as it yelped in pain. But rather than disappointment, I saw only glee on my opponent's face, then I saw his bleeding arm. I had assumed that he got it when he was carrying his son, but if not, that meant...

"B-ugh" the blond kid wanted to say something before his dad kicked him in the arm, effectively turning his warning into a groan of pain.

"Spirit Reaper, come to my aid!" the transparent poltergeist was just in time to block an attack from his baby dragon, orange flames the color of his skin left his mouth and bounced off the ghost harmlessly, with me standing no more than a meter away.

"You have another monster?" my opponent's eyes narrowed in shock.

"I have a lot more than another monster," I was furious at my brush with defeat. Duel monster attacks were usually limited to non-physical, ie. Spiritual attacks in official duels, but that didn't mean those flames wasn't going to hurt.

"Attack, Breaker the Magical Warrior," I Skilled Dark Magician and my first Slate Warrior was still at my place eating pizza and drinking beer, they would hardly be in attack-ready form.

My magical warrior blasted Baby Dragon out of the skies, then finished off Gazelle, in a total of less than a minute. I panted, pushing my hands on my knees to keep standing, worn out by the rapid summonings I've had to do.

"Okay, you won!" He pressed the surrender button on his duel disk, "here, take the kid." I looked at him suspiciously. I wasn't quite sure how the laws here works, but I serious doubted it would be this easy to gain custody of a minor, especially if I was a minor also, emancipated or not. So I had a better plan.

"As a level 0 duelist, I have one forced challenge per month, on any duelist at my level or higher," I kept my eyes trained on his, like a snake eyeing its prey, "Now I choose to use that challenge."

"What?" The no longer drunk-looking man was taken aback, "what do you want from me?"

"I haven't decided yet," I replied smoothly, talking slowly so I could catch my breath. "I'm sure I'll figure something out. Now how many monsters do you have? Wait, don't tell me, I'll look it up."

I was able to look up the information of my past duels and opponents via the duel disk. He had 7 monsters, though their names were not mentioned to protect duelists' strategies.

"I think I'll bet," I hesitated, "10 monsters against you, just in case you had some monsters hidden."

"I can't hide monsters," The man actually had the guts to look exasperated, before he fully comprehended what I said "Come on buddy, I'm really not worth your time. Look, look, you don't want the kid? I'll take him. I'll take him and get out of your way, how's that? And look, I have money" he fumbled through his wallet, finding nothing but a few tens and loose change, "here, take whatever you want, take my whole wallet!"

I kept my eyes trained on him, not saying a word, I won't lie, I was enjoying watching him squirm.

"Or what about my cards? Pick one, come on. You only get one forced duel per month, don't waste it on me!" He was sweating profusely now, the sweat running down the side of his face, revealing tracts of fair skin under the dirt and grime.

My suspicious grew by the second. He didn't act drunk anymore, he certainly was a better duelist than I thought. I mean, he had a strategy, I didn't even have a strategy. Granted, that says more about me than him, but at least it implied that his drunkenness act was faked, so what was his play? I certainly wasn't going to let him get away this easily.

"Too late I'm afraid, let's duel!" I readied my hand again, showing him the 'Challenge Complete' sign on my duel disk.

"Defend me, Banisher of Light (100/2000)!" He called out, clearly enunciating each word, having realized that he wasn't going to sneak out of this one.

"Slate Warrior, attack," If he was going to use the same strategies, so was I.

"Parrot Dragon (2000/1800, lv 5), counter his attack!" His green eyes shone like a cat's in the darkness. If I still had any doubts about his act before, I didn't any more. It's unlike any duelist to hide their most powerful monster when faced with a tough duel, and it took a pretty good duelist to summon lv 5 monsters directly.

"Activate!" I said the words "black pendant" silently, nonetheless, I saw it show up on my Slate Warrior, granting it an extra 500 attack points, easily wiping out Parrot Dragon.

I saw Blastosphere coming forth again, but it wasn't going to get me a second time, "D.D. Warrior, attack Blastosphere, take it out of this world!" As soon as my warrior collided with the mechanical device, I could sense the fabric of reality ripple just a little, both disappeared without another trace.

Without need to be told, Slate Warrior sliced up Banisher of Light, and proceeded to attack the next monster he summoned, Newdoria, before I could stop him.

"Newdoria, destroy his Slate Warrior!" The blond ordered as his fiend was defeated. So he clearly knew about Newdoria's special effects, it might not have been something extraordinary, but it wasn't exactly public knowledge either. His Newdoria latched onto my Slate Warrior, destroying it as Newdoria itself exploded.

"Breaker the Magical Warrior, cross into this world!" I summoned my next card. If there were people watching, I wanted to reveal as few of my cards as possible. As a wave of my hand, my warrior charged my opponent. Now looking younger and much more energized, he was wielding a card that held my fiend back. I got a little closer to see, then quickly backed away- Time Wizard.

As soon as it was summoned, Time Wizard produced a temporal loop that prevented it from being attacked while its effect took place, the clock hand slowed, slowly edging towards the demise of my monsters. The fake-drunk had already summoned Fireland Dragon and Gazelle, if he wins the coin toss, he wasn't going to miss his chance. I racked my mind for what I could do, wait, coin toss!

"I play," I was going to say the name of the spell, Second Coin Toss, out loud before I stopped myself, saying it silently instead "-, activate!"

Time Wizard's hand landed on the clock, signaling my demise, then rapidly started turning again, this time, landing on the skull, destroying all monsters on my opponent's side of the field. He collapsed onto the field, having no more monsters to summon, and probably utterly worn out, having your monsters destroyed is a physically and magically exhausting process for the duelist.

"Surrender," I commanded.

Breaker the Magical Warrior raised his sword threateningly to match my words. No longer resisting, my opponent pushed the surrender button on his duel disk for a second time that night.

"Master," He barely rasped out, managing to crawl into a kneeling position on the ground. I backed away in disgust.

"Slate Warrior," I summoned the destroyed monster again, the fiend looked at me expectantly, "watch this man for tonight, get him back to where he lives, I'll come fetch him tomorrow."

Slate Warrior bowed diffidently before standing over my last opponent, now a crumpling heap on the ground and technically my property. And so's his kid, which was going to be a problem. They really needed to install a cell phone function on these things.

"Breaker," it might not have been extremely polite how I cut his name short, but calling out the full name just sounded silly, "help me get this kid onto the car." And by car, of course I was referring to Gear Golem, which could run on land and fly. Instead of actually carrying my young charge, the brightly robed monster held out one hand and the body floated, almost completely steadily, onto the waiting ride. Of course, he was the Magical warrior.

"Great," I climbed on too, "there's still enough room, get on, and keep him from moving too much." I could now see broken ribs poking out, further movements were not in his favor.

Breaker the Magical Warrior followed suit, Gear Golem, roughly the size of a mini-car, wobbled slightly before taking off. I directed him toward the only hospital Ushio could remember. 'Probably should've just called an ambulance," I wondered out loud. I got so used to solving problems with duel monsters that normal medical procedures just didn't occur to me.

"Th-thanks," I heard the blond kid whisper behind me and turned. He gasped, which led to another bout of coughing and bleeding.

"Tetsu!" He cowered away from me so much that if my warrior hadn't caught him, he would've fallen off. "Te-Tetsu-sama," he immediately corrected himself, hiding his bloodied face in my monster's robes.

At least the shirt's red and the blood won't show, I found myself thinking randomly as I looked at him. I had none of Ushio's memories about who's who, but it was obvious that this kid knew me. As a lowly thug, Tetsu Ushio was most likely to inspire fear in school, not a lot of adults would be scared of a 16 year old on sight, uni-brow or no uni-brow. And this kid did look to be my age, and the blond hair, no, it can't be! There must be a couple of thousand kids in a Japanese high school.

I trained my eyes on him like I did his father moments ago, waiting for him to speak.

"I'm glad you're okay, Tetsu-sama." He finally said.

And that was it, hook, line and sinker. "Why wouldn't I be alright?" My eyes narrowed dangerously, "because you thought I was dead. When you followed you little friend, right?" I probably shouldn't be this pissed, on the one hand, Yami did me a favor. If he hadn't killed Ushio, I wouldn't be here right now, I'd just be dead. On the other hand, as someone who took over Ushio's body, I felt like I had a moral responsibility to avenge his death. He was a bully and asshole, yes, but he didn't do anything worth being killed for.

The blond whimpered a little, and I was sure, "Jounouchi Katsuya."

"Yes, Tetsu-sama," the blond gritted his teeth but bowed down.

"Hmmm," I scratched the back of my head and decided to ignore him. Not that I was going to do anything to him, he was completely innocent in all of this and clearly a victim of child abuse. I just didn't know how to talk to the friend of the guy who killed the soul that lived in your body previously, that's a mouthful. That would be one complicated thank-you note/threat letter to write.

We eventually crossed almost half the city to land in the only hospital I remembered, Jounouchi was immediately sent into the OR with paramedic, while I was trapped outside answering questions and paying bills.

"You are?" The pretty little nurse was not looking cute right now, neither did the Vorse Raider behind her- apparently, the hospital thought I was a violence risk.

"Tetsu Ushio," I responded tiredly, a little exasperated by their caution.

"And your relations to the patient would be?" She watched me like a hawk for any slip-ups, the Vorse Raider behind her did the exact same expression, and I had to laugh at that, which caused both of them to frown in annoyance.

"I guess I'm his..." I tried to choose the best, most legal-sounding word out of my vocabulary, "his guardian right now?"

"Are you two related?" the strawberry blood fired each question faster than the last, every time she does so, Vorse Raider does another intimidating move. I wonder if he knew it wasn't helping.

"No, I beat his dad in an out-all duel," That's what, I learned in the library only hours ago, duels were called when one party had to bet everything including themselves, "so I guess I have to take care of him now." I instinctively neglected to mention that I owned Joey too, it felt wrong somehow, for a kid, especially that kid, to be owned through parental failure.

"So do you know who did this to him?" She looked a little more relaxed and less like I was the mud stuck at the bottom of her shoe.

"I'm not sure," I answered honestly, not mentioning the fact that I might have been a significant contributor to his present condition, if the manga/anime was any indication.

"Do you know how he is doing?" I thought I'd ask just to make sure.

"I'm not sure," she hesitated, gnawing on the end of her pen, sinking her teeth deep into the plastic, "but he's not doing great. The operation will take till morning if all goes well." Seeing me nodding, she asked, "Who will be paying for the operation?"

Oh yeah, forgot to mention, Japan no longer had universal health care. They would treat any potentially fatal emergency, of course, but technically even that wouldn't be free.

"That would be me." Joey's dad wouldn't have the money to pay for this even if he wanted to, though now I'm not so sure that he didn't want to. Seeing her curious look, I showed her my bank card that Kaiba Corp just deposited into. "Where do I pay?" Oh, they also have a 'pay as you go' system, rather than being billed days later.

The nurse was much friendlier now, and the Vorse Raider had put his axe back into its holsters on his sides, standing stoically, like he wasn't the one who just raised the axe over my head threateningly less than a minute ago. I patted him on the arm as I walked passed, quite amused when he flinched from my touch.

Joey's operating costs, according to current estimates that everything would go according to plan, was the price of one Breaker the Magic Warrior. It was liable to increase drastically when things inevitably went wrong, or when Joey had to stay in the hospital for recovery.

Not being able to go into the operating room, I went back home, this time by taxi instead of flying machine monster.

It was 3am when I got home, Skilled Dark Magician and Slate Warrior had already eaten and cleaned up, and was kneeling in the exact same place and position as when I first summoned them. 'So they have initiative and can decide what they should do,' was the last thought I entertained before blacking out on the couch, without even saying hi.

Nobody came knocking at my door the next morning, so I didn't wake up until 1pm in the afternoon. I stretched, and barely caught myself before I fell of the bed. Bed?

I thought... Of course, I could be wrong, I didn't remember much since sending Joey to the hospital. Which reminds me, should probably check up on the poor kid, and his dad I guess.

And sort out all my monsters.

I did some brief reading at the library yesterday, and found that high level monsters were not nearly as easy to come by as I had come to believe. Blue Eyes White Dragon was an excellent example, there being only 4 in captivity (they said domesticated, but same thing really). Perfectly Ultimate Moth was a little more common, there being nearly 20 known monsters of this type held by various duelists across the world. Monsters like Summoned Skull, Dark Magician, CyberTech Alligator's domestication numbers crossed into the 3rd digit, but only just. Essentially, only a few of the largest companies in the world, like Kaiba Corp, like Industrial Illusions, like Paradius had a reserve of these monsters. Otherwise, most duelists would be lucky to hold even one, and was thus unlikely to ever trade it for another monster they were unfamiliar with, not without serious incentives. On the plus side, duel monsters were magically bound to obey their current masters, so that shouldn't be too bad.

"Morning," I smiled at the two duel monsters in my living room, forgot to summon them back last night too. "Food?" I offered, digging into the fridge, I had little to nothing left, except various leftover fast foods, but those things last forever, right?

My two extremely uncomfortable duel monsters ended up standing at the side of the table for their breakfast, of toast, fried eggs and reheated cheese burgers, both refused to sit even though I wasn't even at the table.

I had received a letter from school, warning me to return to school or 'face dire consequences'. In normal societies, these consequences would refer to suspension or at best expulsion, in this world, it referred to being forced to join the army, being forced into a manual-labor job if you can't find a 'suitable' job fast enough, or being sent directly to prison. So I all but ran to school, getting there in record time of 12 minutes, exactly at 7:58am.

I was glad that I at least remembered where his classes were, though what these classes entailed eluded me. I spent the entire day relearning high school material, my only comfort being that aside from Japanese, which I inherited the ability to speak but not how to read or write, all other classes were relatively basic.

Japan had adopted both English and Japanese as its official languages in this time line, hence the dual English and Japanese names. So I had the option of taking English OR Japanese, naturally I would be switching back to English the first chance I got, not like the previous Ushio had been any good with Japanese anyways.

Classes ran non-stop from 8am to 12 noon. Technically there were breaks, but those were all taken up by teachers talking for 'just five more minutes'. The information wasn't difficult, but there was certainly a lot of it, and most of it was new. I could blame it on the fact that I didn't receive a lot of the memories Ushio had, though I personally suspected that he never understood it to begin with. So, finally lunch, with classes not starting until 2:15, I pulled a couple of chairs together to nap, asking Spirit Reaper to wake me up in case something happened.

I didn't expect anything to happen, but they did. I guess you could say that as the biggest kid in school, Tetsu Ushio was a minor celebrity, and it's really not hard to find where he was or wasn't at any given time. And that's how the main-character gang found me, sprawled out fast asleep in the class. Spirit Reaper, of course, immediately alerted me when he saw that I was their target, so I wasn't entirely taken by surprise. Also, I knew I was going to run into them eventually when I go to school, so I wasn't completely unprepared. Of course, that didn't mean I was prepared either.

"Yugi," My eyes narrowed at sight of the tri-colored hair runt, yep, it was official, 5 feet including the hair.

"Hey, what have you done with our Joey?" The tall brunet must be Tristan.

"Yeah!" The reddish brown haired girl added "give Joey back to us!"

"Miho would also like to have Joey back," and this got my attention. Miho had been a manga-only character, so does that mean things would run according to the manga? I looked at the ghost floating next to me, does this mean thing would go sort of like the manga? Or maybe we were following the manga from an alternative universe, where the monsters were real. The possibilities were endless.

"Tetsu-san, please, give Joey back." Yugi looked up at me with large purple eyes. Umm, multi-colored hair, violet eyes, he could be a Mary Sue, I laughed out loud at my own thoughts.

"What's so funny, tough guys?" Tristan took at as a personal insult. I can understand why my ill-timed laughter could be misinterpreted, so I let that one slide.

"You really have no idea what's going on with you, do you?" I looked at Yugi curiously. I don't remember when Yugi first got a clue that there's somebody inside him, but I guess he wasn't sure yet.

"I-" He hesitated, but because he was the too-trusting Yugi, he finally answered, "I think I do." As he said this, he bit on his lips and tears welled up in his eyes. 'Mary Sue,' I labelled again.

"Yugi, what are you talking about?" Tea didn't understand how I could turn the table on Yugi with just one sentence, but bent down to look at Yugi, concern obvious in her entire body language.

"What did you do to Yugi?" Tristan demanded angrily.

"Probably no more than you did," I answered in all honesty, "but that's beside the point. Why don't you ask him?"

"Guys," Yugi swiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, "I need to tell you something. Sometimes, I forget things, I wake up and I don't know what I've been doing or how I got there. I think there's somebody else living in my body." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is an example of an excellent punchline.

"Yugi..." Tea bent down and hugged the small boy, "it's okay."

"Who is this other person?" Tristan asked. Yugi only shook his head, still fighting back tears.

"But what about Jounouchi-kun?" Miho was extraordinarily insightful sometimes, if only she had waited a couple of seconds so I could get a chance to completely denounce Yami.

"Yeah! What does any of this have to do with Joey?" Tristan was either slow or just backing his hopeful girlfriend up.

"Nothing, but it is my primary concern right now, seeing as the spirit residing in your jewelry there killed me last we met"

"He, He killed you?" Tea asked, horrified. "But then how are you still here right now? You're not, you're not a ghost, right?"

At the mention of ghost, Tristan paled and tried to hug Miho for comfort, Miho stepped aside right as he was about to close the hug, so he hugged Yugi instead, who also looked scared.

"Not quite," I replied, "I don't think so at least. It's complicated, and I'm not sure how I'm alive right now, but I'm pretty sure I had died." Every single word of that sentence is true.

"Yugi, you don't have to answer me now, but have you noticed an unusual amount of deaths around you? An unusual amount of injuries and brain-dead patients?" I innocently led little Yugi onto the path I wanted him to go, the best way to contain Yami was via the vessel for the Millennium Item, Yugi Motou. "You can't honestly think those were all coincidences?"

"That's enough!" Yami emerged after a brief transformation, "stop corrupting them with your lies."

"Name one thing I said that wasn't true." I challenged, "How many people have you killed since you have become capable of killing again?"

"They deserved to die," Yami put forth what he probably thought was the best argument, modern political science disagrees.

"By your standards. But without a judge, a trial or a jury, they were murdered. At best, we can call you a vigilante."

"That is a good name," Miho added.

"And what's the worst?" Tea asked out of curiosity

"Mass murderer," I answered calmly.

"No, you have no right to spew this nonsense." Yami's violet eyes shone with righteous anger. "I challenge you to a duel!"

"I accept your challenge." For a second there, I was terrified, I honestly thought Yami was just going to mind-crush me. I might believe that the effects of mind crush can be controlled, but I honestly didn't believe that Mind Crush could only destroy the darker part of somebody's nature, that's hardly befitting of the most powerful Millennium Item (since it was worn by the main character). So a duel was much more preferable, at least with a duel, I had a chance "Let's duel!"

"But instead of the normal games, let's do this in the shadow realm!" Yami announced loudly.

"No, spirit, what are you doing?" Yugi suddenly took over the body and demanded.

"What has to be done, aibou." Yami said almost patiently before preparing his spell again.

"Now, before you do that," I had to step in, "would it be possible to get this boring mortal stuff taken care of first?" I motioned to the duel challenge I issued from my duel disk, "I propose we make this an all-out duel, for the both of us." If I was going to die when I lose, why not maximize the benefits when I win? I found an odd thrill as I laid my life done on the line, something I've never willingly done before.

"Very well, I will lay down all of my monsters, as well as myself," Yami announced quite regally, but I cut him off.

"You mean Yugi. You're a piece of jewelry." His royalness didn't look so high and mighty now did he.

"Yugi, I'm afraid you only have my word for this, this man _cannot_ be trusted, and together, we _will_ defeat him" a pause, "I know, I'm sorry I put you in this situation," a longer pause, "Are you completely sure, Yugi? It's very dangerous for you too." A shorter pause, "very well, if that is your wish, I will respect it." Yami was speaking to the air beside him, it was really freaky hearing him talk like this.

"Ummm..." I wasn't sure if I was interrupting. "Soooo, challenge?"

"Let's go to a duel stadium." The shorter Yugi came back, "we'll duel there."

I shook my head, still trying to get Yugi on my side, which would allow me to avoid the duel with Yami, which terrified me. "Yugi, how much do you know about this guy?"

"I know enough, Tetsu-san," Yugi looked completely confident with his decision, "and I trust him completely."

"You know he was an ancient pharaoh." I said rather than asked. Yugi nodded firmly.

"So you realize that this mean he was a 5000 year-old Dictator?" Yugi didn't nod at that, he just looked perplexed.

"Yes, dictator," I saw that I was getting through to him, "what did you think pharaohs were, elected?" Now even Tea and Tristan looked unsure, only Miho seemed unaffected. That girl was weird.

"He's still my friend," Yugi said with less conviction this time, "and I trust him, and I will help him."

"I know you think he's a good person Yugi," I put a hint of desperation and a lot of exasperation in my voice, "and I even believe that _he_ thinks he's a good person, but that doesn't mean he's a good person!"

"What do you mean?" Tea asked that for all three of them, clearly, none of them understood me.

"Times change, Tea," I shook my head at their ignorance, "you can't possibly think moral codes established three thousand years before the birth of Christ could possibly still apply today?"

"But good and evil never changes, Tetsu-san." Yugi must have heard something from Yami to gain this new-found confidence.

"Oh yeah? Ask him what the punishment for stealing bread is. Then ask him what the punishment for a royal killing a commoner is." Yugi looked confused, I guess high school kids didn't think that much about the role society and improved productivity played in our evolving sense of morality. "Well?" I prompted.

Yugi stayed silent for a minute, then tears began streaming down his cheeks. "How could you _say_ that Yami? How could you even _think_ that?" He suddenly screamed into the air, drawing stares from random strangers and making his friends form a circle around him to hide him from the public.

I shrugged when Tea sent me a glare, it wasn't my fault. Their problem was always there, I just pointed it out to them.

Yugi calmed down by the time we got to the duel stadium, too bad. Should've waited a little longer to say that line, so he would be in no shape to duel when we got here.

"I understand what you're saying, Tetsu-san," Yugi looked up, eyes warmer now, but not looking like a baby panda, "But that's just because Yami is from a different time, I'm sure he'd come around soon."

I stared at him incredulously, not sure if I should mention that most senses of morality was well-established by late adolescent.

"We'll officialise the duel there, and let's duel" Yugi started the sentence but at the end, both Yugis seemed to be talking together.

Was it a thing about main characters, that if you try to scheme and pry them apart, they only become closer together?

We barely took our places at each end of the stadium when Yami started talking, "let's take this game to the Shadow Realm." Great, this shit again.

I saw the world around me waver, flicker and fade as darkness set in. The pure darkness in which no light had ever shone before or ever will. It and the dangers within it seemed to engulf me, as it slowly became harder to breathe.

"That would make no sense," I told myself, "if Yugi, another mortal, can live in this realm, I certainly could. That thought was just enough to break me out of my trance when I saw Feral Imp (1300/1400) charging no more than 10 feet away from me. My confusion was either a spell or a side effect of entering the Shadow Realm, either way, Yami took advantage of it, though if it were me, I wouldn't have chosen Feral Imp, because- "Slate Warrior, come forth, slay this beast" At the sound of my voice, the powerful lv4 fiend rushed out of a newly created vortex and charged Feral Imp, Yami groaned as he took the 600 LP hit. I wondered how many LP we were playing with.

At a wave of my hand, Slate Warrior charged forward once more, this time towards Yami Yugi.

"You won't get past that easily, with my Giant Soldier of Stone," Yami called out.

I didn't say anything, just silently activated the Black Pendant on Slate Warrior's neck as I summoned by second monster, Gemini Elf, who immediately charged towards Yami as his Giant Soldier of Stone was destroyed. I wanted to end this as quickly as possible. Being in the Shadow Realm took an incredible toll on my body, time was not on my side right now.

"Ah," Yami backed away in pain. Not having had enough time to summon his next monster, he took a direct hit. I looked at him suspiciously. That was 2500 LP lost already, so he had at least 4000LP? If direct attacks were permitted, were we playing by Battle City rules?

As it was an active battle field, Yami didn't give me much time to think, "Gaia, the Fierce Knight, Destroy Slate Warrior with your mighty lance!" Slate Warrior's theoretical attack was 1900, 2400 after adding Black Pendant, while Gaia' theoretical attack as 2300, but that's not something I could bet on anymore in this world.

"Activate trap!" Reinforcement, I added silently. "Slate Warrior, destroy his knight." Reinforcement only added 500 attack and only for one turn, but it required almost no magical energy to maintain or activate, thus keeping it on the top of my 'useful cards' list, especially in the shadow realm, when every second I could feel a fraction of my magic and my soul being drained.

Gaia screamed in agony as Slate Warrior punched at the center of his armor, creating a 5-inch dent that penetrated more than half of his chest. He cast one last longing look at Yami Yugi before collapsing, his body, or maybe corpse? Slowly absorbed back into the shadows.

"No!" Yami Yugi exclaimed in alarm as his knight was swallowed by the shadows. He received another direct attack from Gemini Elf. That's 4400 now. Does he have 8000LP? Does that mean I had 8000LP? It was terrifying facing an opponent whose strength you couldn't even fathom.

Yami gritted his teeth glaring at me, I thought I could hear him growl, but that must have been just my imagination. "My ultimate mage, come force. Dark Magician!"

A tall man in armor descend quickly from a vortex in midair, even from 50 feet away, I could feel the magic radiating off of him, just his presence caused both of my monsters to back off in alarm.

"Dark Magician," Yami Yugi ordered, "Thousand Knives!"

Thousand knives destroys one of your opponent's monsters when you have a Dark Magician or a Dark Magician Girl on the field. Yami didn't specify the target, but his monster understood and aimed at Slate Warrior, who shifted carefully to block any part of that attack from reaching me. I didn't think there were actually a thousand knives, but there must have been hundreds, and now they skewered the fiend in front of me. I could see more knives than monster. Huh, who knew fiends bled blue blood?

The shadows were more vicious this time, as they greedily reached forward and absorbed each section of his body as soon as they could, rather than sinking the whole body down into the ground as they did with Yugi's knight. I stared, almost mesmerized as the corpse (oh god I hope it's just the corpse) of my fiend was devoured bit by bit, exposing each layer of skin, muscle and bone. The Shadow Realm was so silent my own rapid breathing seemed the loudest sound there was, but I was sure I heard his screams rang out at a deafening volume in my mind, long after his mouth, throat and lungs had been devoured by the darkness.

"Surrender now while you can," Yami said again in that oh-so-effing-regal voice of his, I stared at him blindly, not seeing, not understanding. "Surrender now, before it's too late." He urged again commandingly. Matching his words, Dark Magician raised his staff, aiming it at me while the orb glowed a deathly green, my Elves immediately positioned themselves in front of me to block a possible attack, and that woke me up from my trance.

My angry laughter echoed in the darkness, his highness dragged me into the Shadow Realm, murdered my monsters, and now he expects me to bow down at his feet. Bullshit!

"I activate, Metalmorph!" In my rage, I had forgotten to keep the traps a secret as I had always tried to do "Gemini Elf, destroy his Dark Magician!"

My elves cast a quick glance back at me, obviously perplexed, but followed orders anyways, as they charged towards Yugi's mage. Immediately, a metal armor covered their bodies, and as Dark Magician rose his staff to defend himself, half of that was deflected back onto him. I watched with vengeful glee as the blue-robed figure blocked one last attack for his master and was blown into five uneven pieces, quickly absorbed back into the shadows from whence he came. He bled red, how interesting.

"Dark Magician," Yami leaned forward to watch the demise of his strongest monster, and exclaimed in shock and dismay.

"Slate Warrior, attack Yugi directly!" I summoned my third monster for the duel.

While my monsters attacked, I counted off of my fingers, had I always been this bad at math or was it just this body?

How much life points did Yugi lose again? 1900+300 plus half of 2500 subtract 2500, um... about 1000? no, 950. And Slate Warrior's attack was another 1900, which made 6300+950, let's say 900, so that was 7200. I was encouraged.

Yami looked disappointed, but not defeated even after his strongest monster had just been splattered onto the ground, what was his play? I looked on, worried, quickly ticking off each monster in Yugi's deck. Wait, Exodia, of course! I had gotten so used to seeing Yugi without Exodia in the rest of the series that I forgot he must still have it now.

Think fast Tetsu!

"I lay one card face down," I then realized that I somehow reversed back to the language of duels in the past and almost smiled at the mistake. "And summon Luster Dragon, in attack mode!" I made sure to take the Luster Dragons I got from Kaiba Corp rather than Rex Raptor. "Now my monsters, attack Yugi directly!"

"You have activated my trap," Yami retaliated, if that was all he got, I would be very relieved indeed, "Mirror Force!"

I guess he said his traps out loud too, I wonder if it made a difference. Not that it would this time.

"Activate trap, Trap Jammer," I had wanted to not say the trap this time, but it just sort of slipped out. I felt a drain on my energy, more than any before, as the reflective sheen of Yami's Mirror Force dissipated and my monsters rushed again to attack.

Instinctively, I made my next move, "And I'll activate this!" Robbin Goblin, this time I did remember not to say the traps out loud. It took a lot more energy to activate traps as soon as they were set, but it was still possible for me.

If I had been thinking clearly, I might not have activated the trap. Yami had lost 7200LP, surely another attack by all three monsters would defeat him. But I wasn't thinking clearly, and for once, I was glad that I wasn't. Yami stumbled as my monsters' attacks reached him, but still stood tall, looking much more alive and energetic than I felt (and no doubt looked). My Robbin Goblin appeared three times, each time reaching around Yami to pull something out of the darkness behind him, and throwing it to the shadowy swamp between us to be engulfed by the darkness. I think two of those times involved something golden and shiny.

"What, what did you do? What did you do to my deck?" Yami demanded angrily. I merely smiled tiredly, a little happy, but more guarded than ever. That last attack should have taken 6000 LP from him, which made 13200 LP in total. I guessed that life points varied by duelist, but this was getting ridiculous. He might outlast me just by standing there and being attacked. With each passing second in the Shadow Realm, I could feel myself physically and psychologically weaken. Just being in this world was more taxing than summoning a monster each turn. So I didn't respond to his questions, just ordered my monsters to attack again. This time, Yami summoned Gazelle, King of Mythical Beasts to defend himself, who managed to defend against two of my monsters' attacks before being destroyed. It certainly wasn't attack or defense points, but he could do so simply by virtual of being well-trained. I guess numbers weren't everything. But even with two monsters blocked, Luster Dragon did get an attack in, making Yami's total damage 15100, he didn't even look fazed.

At least I got rid of Exodia, I hoped.

I had long noticed that while dueling, some monsters, for whatever reason, are easier to summon than others, and there didn't seem to be a pattern to which monsters were easier to summon than others, a reservoir if you will, of easily summoned monsters. The same pattern more or less applies to spells, though to a lesser degree. I guessed that constitutes as a 'hand'. This was especially obvious in the Shadow Realm, when each monsters took 2, 3 times more energy to summon. Yami might be able to summon one or two Exodia pieces directly from his deck, but certainly not all five, and how that three (another one from Luster Dragon's last attack) of the five pieces were lost, as long as he didn't have cards like Factory of Mass Production (brings two 1000 attack dark monsters from the grave to your hand), Exodia was lost. But who is to say that he didn't know these spells?

"I summon Banisher of Light (100/2000), in attack mode." my move earned a suspicious look from Yami, Banisher of Light wasn't exactly known for its attack strength. "And I'll lay one card face down" I said before I could stop myself, oops, wrong lingo again. Oh well, as long as Dispell was on the field.

"I summon Kuriboh, in defense mode" Yugi announced loudly. "And I'll activate a spell, Multiply!" I knew he would do that!

I cut him short before he could explain what that card did, I really didn't need to spend any extra time in the world. "Dispell!" I actually saw a giant lock appear out of nowhere, and gather up all the magical energies of Yami's spell then locking it away before fading away.

Yami gasped as Luster Dragon destroyed Kuriboh, and three of my monsters attacked him respectively. Instead of being enveloped by the shadows like the other monsters, Kuriboh faded away when destroyed, I didn't notice the torch held by my Banisher of Light flickering at Kuriboh's death, but Yami did. My goblin appeared three more times, but only twice did he show up with any loot, both of which he sent to Banisher of Light, who destroyed the conquest with a single glance.

"You're a very powerful opponent," Yami declared, "But not powerful enough! I have faith in the heart of my cards, and that's what will get me through."

I, on the other hand, had absolutely no faith in my cards at all. I forced them to fight, to bleed and die in horrendous ways, now even their corpse (once again, I _pray_ it was the corpse) was mutilated in this shadowy hellhole, I had no faith that they didn't want to murder me, let alone going out of their way to lend me a hand.

"Now I activate a spell," Yami still didn't look as ghastly as I did, not even after losing, must have been 17200 life points now. (Later calculations showed it to be 17400, but that's another story)

"Pot of Greed!" Lucky him, that would definitely help his case, and while activating a spell, its powers were able to keep attacking monsters at bay, if only temporarily.

"I activate, Black Luster Ritual!" Yami looked untouchable, the spell enveloped him in a warm light, protecting him from the encroaching shadows. I was so jealous. "I will send my Magician of Black Chaos to the graveyard," of course he'd have that card, it was like the only card that had 8 stars in his deck. My Banisher of Light removed the card from play instead. "To summon, Black Luster Soldier (3000/2500)! Now, destroy his Gemini Elf!" Yami was smart, he might not have known the exact effects of my trap, but he suspected enough. Equipped with Metalmorph, my Gemini Elf was the only monster I had on the field that could have destroyed his monster in the next turn.

If I hadn't been in the Shadow Realm for so long, if I hadn't been utterly exhausted, I might have been able to react in time and activate Mirror Force, or even Widespread Ruin, but as it were, I didn't react in time. My elves were sliced cleanly in two, their wounds burnt to ashes as soon as they appeared, such that not even a drop of blood spilled. Their mutilated bodies faded out of sight, safe from the shadows. I guess that was a good thing? Unlike Yugi's monsters, which were more vocal, my elves died quietly like the rest, I almost wished they would scream out loud, then at least I could be sure I wasn't going crazy hearing their pleas of agony in my head. With Banisher of Light in play, Gemini Elf was also removed from play. The 800 LP loss hit me harder than the almost 20000 LP loss had done to Yami. I collapsed to the ground, barely managing to pull myself up to a sitting position before Black Luster Soldier's next attack. Because I wasn't going to give him a next attack. I sucked the blood from my lips where I had bitten it before, it tasted delicious.

"I summon, Copycat!" I did have a few aces up my sleeves too. Without needing to be told, Copycat imitated Black Luster Solder's attack and defense. But I wasn't done, oh I wasn't done by a long shot. "Fissure!" I called out with what strength I could muster. The shadows making up the floor of the dueling arena opened up, a giant hand reached out, and grabbed Yugi's Black Luster Solder before it could escape too far. The warrior of light struggled to no avail as it was pulled down further and further. Good, I hope it burned in hell. But my curses didn't come true, as the armored monster faded out of existence like all the others, when it was removed from play.

"Now my beasts," correct or proper diction wasn't on my list of priorities at this point, "attack Yami Yugi!" Yami's eyes widened, I had never referred to him as Yami before, but I didn't care anymore. Another attack, another 6900 LP removed from Yami Yugi's what was looking like an infinite number of LP. The total is what, 23100 now (the correct number was 24300), I thought hazily. He had more than 20000LP? I wonder how much I had, like 2000? 4000? Robbin Goblin attacked again, removing a card from Yami's reservoir before he was able to summon it. The other three times, it came back empty-handed.

"I will invoke the powers of light!" Yami stood tall against my monster's onslaught, "Swords of Revealing Light! It will halt your monster in its tracks for the time being." Three turns, I added mentally. I tried to play Dispell again, but found that I couldn't. Each spell or trap card was easiest the first time it was used in a duel, each further use increased its magical demands exponentially. After the third time, it simply wasn't possible for a common duelist to use that spell anymore. In the Shadow Realm, that situation is exacerbated to an even greater degree, as I found myself unable to use a simple spell for the second time. No matter, I had alternatives. "Mystical Space Typhoon, attack his Swords of Light!" I was blabbering nonsense while concentrating on the spell, but it worked anyways and Yami's Swords of Revealing Light was shattered. My monsters quickly advanced to attack without needing to be told. Another 6900 LP, for a total of... 30000! (The correct number was 31200). Yay, whole numbers! I secretly rejoiced for no adequate reason.

Yami had only managed to summon monsters for the next several turns, but with an attack 3000, Copycat was able to destroy all of this defense position monsters, while the other three monsters dealt 3900 damage per turn for three turns. That was 42700 LP! (Actually 42900LP, my addition errors occurred in both directions and were beginning to cancel each other out). I was laying on the ground now, dejected. Anyone looking at our duel would have assumed that I had already lost. If it weren't for the sweat on his brow and the desperation in his eyes, I would have given up. How many more of his monsters did I have to destroy, how many more life points did I have to take before he was actually beaten?

A screech brought me out of my self-pity, as Copycat destroyed a defense-position Morphing Jar. Since its effects were activated when being 'flipped', in this case attacked, being removed from play rather than sent to the graveyard had no bearing on the activation of its powers. I felt the monsters and spells I previous had easy access to being removed from play, and replaced with five new ones. Which meant the same must be true for Yami, time to step it up a notch.

"Breaker the Magical Warrior, emerge from the shadows, and destroy my enemies!" it sounded ridiculous, but shouting things like that did make me feel a little bit more optimistic. It might have been more intimidating if I hadn't been lying on my stomach, barely propping myself up with my elbows.

My monsters attacked one by one before Yami had a chance to summon any monsters. Breaker the Magical Warrior barely caught up to the rhythm, making one final attack as all five monsters retreated to regroup, after dealing a combined damage of 5800. Making a total of 46500LP Yami had lost thus far (actually 48700. In my defense, I was really, really tired). Most importantly though, my goblin was able to steal four cards from Yami's available reservoir, cutting leaving him with only one card.

Which was apparently enough.

"Now, I activate Reborn the Monster, to bring back my Dark Magician from the graveyard!" This time, Dark Magician literally rose out of the shadows, a little worse for wear, but no less powerful.

"And I'll help my mage with a spell," Yami finally looked as worn out as I did five turns ago, "Mystic box!"

I honestly didn't have any time to defend against that. I couldn't play Dispell again, and I had no Magic Jammer on the field, and I wasn't powerful enough to activate trap cards from my hand (okay, reservoir), and definitely not from my deck.

The effect of Mystic Box was supposed to be 'destroy one opponent monster, grant control of one of your monsters to your opponent,' the second part somehow did not apply to Yami, maybe because his Dark Magician was strong enough to break the mind-control of the mystical box?

I watched helplessly as my Copycat was sealed into a box, and Dark Magician was sealed into another one. "I'm sorry," I mouthed, even though my monster wouldn't be able to see it even if it hadn't been locked away.

"Watch, as my box is impaled with swords," Yami said dramatically, "But wait, who's really inside?"

When the box opened, my Copycat was pierced by the swords that ran into the box. And unlike the anime version, it wasn't in card form.

"But that's not all," Yami continued, I was really beginning to hate his voice, "watch as my Magician emerges on your side of the field!"

A lot should be said of my mentality that I was able to immediately redirect my attention back to the duel, when the other mystic box opened and Yugi's Dark Magician emerged unharmed, he had that same irritating arrogant smirk Yami did, as he shook his finger at me, his staff powering up for an attack.

In my peripheral vision, I could see my monsters rushing to my aid; concern, anger and desperation evident in their eyes. That warmed my heart more than I thought it would

"Activate trap, Widespread Ruin!" I forgot to keep the name of the trap secret again. But honestly, you didn't think I would have an attack position Banisher of Light on the field and _not_ have laid down a couple of traps, did you? Yami's Dark Magician (Mahaad was it?) rushed into a burning wasteland, he was so close to me I could see him struggling for air even as the flames eroded into his neck and his upper body turned into char. My satisfaction at his defeat was abruptly cut short. At least his pains were short-lived, as he faded out of the duel when my Banisher of Light removed him from play.

"Attack." I could barely speak, I felt like my throat had just been burned also. But my monsters heard me anyways as they charged Yami. How much was that? Another 5800LP, he's lost what, like 50000 something LP now? Probably 52000, yeah, I'm gonna go with that. (54500). I sat cross legged, crouched, resting my elbows on my knees and trying very hard not to cry. It wasn't even my monster! And it was either me or him! I couldn't possibly have taken another 2500 loss in LP. Then Yami could have killed me! And would have gotten away scout free! It wasn't my fault! So screamed every rational fiber of my being. It didn't make a difference, it wouldn't have made a difference to that stoic mage would sacrificed his life over and over again for a king who didn't even remember his existence. But it was my monsters I needed to be concerned about, not his, I barely managed a smile when they completed another round of attacks, this time Yami was unable to summon a monster, thus giving me direct access to his life points, for a total of 57800(60600) cumulative LP lost.

Just as suddenly, Yami was gone. His wary countenance was replaced by one of energy and optimism. I swore out loud. They shouldn't be able to do that! Yami lost almost 60k LP and he was still doing fine (ish), how was I supposed to defeat Yugi now? And what would happen next? Yami coming back good as new?

"Tetsu-san" Yugi had the guts to look concerned at my current state, "you shouldn't-"

"Shut it!" I barked. I normally wouldn't describe my own words as 'barking' but that _was_ what I did. 'Shut it and duel and lose.' I wanted to say, but couldn't find the energy. "Attack!" I did manage to order weakly, and my monsters complied. Before Yugi was able to summon any monsters, he was hit with 5800 damage. He should have lost! I mentally ranted, but was too tired to voice the comment. How many LPs did _this_ kid have? But Yugi obviously didn't have as much as Yami, that one attack had put him into a worse state than I was at. I thought I saw Yami transiently take over, but it happened so fast I might have imagined it. Then Yugi was back, weakened but determined as ever.

"I can't let you win, Tetsu-san," He stood at no more than 5 feet, barely taller than me now that I was sitting down. "The Pharaoh is counting on me and I can't let him down."

I shook my head in disbelief, what did Yami do to win his loyalties?

"I choose, Monster Reincarnation!" he said, the very words seemed to take the life out of him. Of course it would, Monster Reincarnation required the user to discard one card from their hand to bring one back from the graveyard, and Yugi only had one card in his hand, so either he activated a spell not in his reservoir (which require an enormous amount of energy) or he was unable to discard a card (which must have its own repercussions), "to bring back, Gaia the Fierce Knight!"

What was he trying to do? I wondered, while my monsters were temporarily kept at bay by the effect of the spell cards. Directly summon Gaia? In his state? That's a 7 star monster! Turns out he had something far crazier in mind.

"And I'll fuse him with Curse of Dragon!" Yugi looked paler than death, I just noticed a gash than ran the entire length of his arm, his blood absorbed by the Shadow Realm, feeding into the darkness as soon as they left his veins (Oh, I hope it was veins). Curse of Dragon was definitely _not_ in his hand either, "with the spell Polymerization! To bring about, Gaia, the Dragon Champion" My mind went blank for a second. He just played three consecutive cards from his deck, in the Shadow Realm of all places. How is he still alive? Was it a protagonist perk that he just didn't die?

But he did collapse, looking like death itself, before Yami Yugi took over. "Thank you, aibou," he said so solemnly I actually wondered if Yugi might be dead. Then I'd be in huge trouble. Just think of all the things the main character had to deal with in this show, the world would probably end without him.

Fuck the world, I forced myself to get angry, anger was much better than despair, or worse yet, regret. Regret would lose me the duel, and with it, my life. After me, the flood. So fuck the world if I can't even survive this duel.

"Activate trap, Bottomless Traphole" I announced louder than I had been for a while, "now watch as your monster sinks into oblivion! Great strategy Pharaoh, killing your little hikari so you could take his body for good?" Yami paled at my accusations, but said nothing in his own defense. "I summon, my third Slate Warrior!" My monsters attacked again, for a total of probably 66000 LP. (68300).

"Yugi had done more than his share for this duel," the fire in Yami's eyes burned bright, "and I'm going to win it, for his sake! I activate a trap," He didn't have any cards in his reservoir, so it must have been directly activated from his deck! "Ring of Destruction!" Shit, was my first reaction, wasn't that Kaiba's card. It destroys one monster on the field and takes its attack from both players' LP. But I couldn't let him play that, not without knowing how many life points I had! I didn't feel like I had more than 2000, so I was left with my emergency contingency plan.

"Seven tools of the bandit, activate!" That spell cost 1000LP, if I had 2000 LP to start with, and my math was correct, I only had 200LP left now. I certainly felt like I only had 10% of life left. I could barely see through the spots in my eyes, breathing became hard work and I straight out collapsed onto my back, not even able to sit up anymore. At the price of 1000 of my life points though, I did negate his trap and my monsters attacked again. I had stopped trying to keep track of how much damage I had done, it certainly wasn't going to help (77000). I gritted my teeth and laid down another Trap Jammer, I wasn't sure if I would be able to activate it, should the need arise, but it was better than not having anything at all.

"Messengers of Peace, come forth," Yami was bleeding also, he had bitten into his own wrist to let the blood flow freely. He finally looked nearly as much at the end of his ropes as I did.

My monsters were hypnotized, for the time being, unable to attack or defend, while these white-robed figures floated on the field. "At a small price of my life energy," Yami had the good graces to explain through his grunts of pain, "As long as this spell is on the field, it prevents any monsters with over 1400 attack from attacking."

Finally, somebody besides me grunts! I found myself thinking for no reason at all.

"Breaker, do your thing!" I commanded. Breaker the Magical Warrior looked back at me, confused. "Destroy Messenger of Peace," I amended my orders.

And he did, using the token that granted him 300 attack, the spell was destroyed and my monsters were freed from their reveries. "Attack," I ordered weakly. Unlike previous attacks that achieved nothing except wearing Yami down, he collapsed at this final attack (7400 damage, totaling 84400), and I was finally brought into the light again.

Lying flat on my back, I stared at the blinding duel stadium lights.

"Yugi? Are you alright?" Tea's feminine voice seemed way too high-pitched right now, I was getting a splitting headache. I found myself wondering if I could get one of my monsters to kill her, before understanding what I actually thought. I probably need PTDS therapy, I realized.

"Yugi, what happened?" Tristan rushed up to Yugi also, but not before pressing the emergency button to call for an ambulance.

I struggled into a sitting position with the help of Luster Dragon nudging me from behind, I wrapped an arm around his (her?) cool neck, enjoying the touch of another living creature next to me, which meant that I was also alive.

"I believe I won," I said flatly to the duel modulator rushing in. It wasn't entirely uncommon, though was not recommended, for some duelists to refuse to have _any_ audience during the duel. There really wasn't any rules in these duels other than defeat your opponents using whatever means possible. Though both duelists would be checked for firearms prior to commencing the duel. In these cases, the winning duelist was generally assumed to be the one in better shape, i.e. the conscious one, as losing all your life energy did tend to put you into a coma.

"And Mr. Yugi Moto is?" The man looked at me carefully.

"Out cold, as far as I can tell" I replied. Paramedics tending to Yugi confirmed my statement, and my victory was confirmed. I didn't feel victorious though, I barely felt alive. What I wanted to do was to summon all my monsters, even Yugi's monsters, look them over, make sure they were alright, or at least alive. But I didn't even have enough energy to do that. I continued sitting on the dueling platform I swear wasn't there in the shadow realm, glassy-eyed, thinking about nothing at all

"Mr. Ushio," the duel modulator approached me cautiously, not unlike how one would deal with a large feral beast that was not particularly well-liked. I turned to the source of the noise on instinct, not understanding what he wanted from me.

"Mr. Ushio," the man began again, was it the same guy from my duel with Rex Raptor? I wondered. "Our records indicate that you're now the guardian for one Yugi Motou?"

Yugi, Yugi, right. Yugi Motou. "What about it?" I grumbled.

"His treatment, Mr. Ushio, would you authorize it?" Authorizing life-saving treatment? That didn't sound like something that should require authorization.

"What if I didn't authorize it?" I asked curiously. The normal me would have rushed to save Yugi's life, the poor kid who got possessed by a 5000 year-old spirit, and spent a good part of his life stopping said spirit from doing anything drastic.

"Well..." The man looked at me like I was the gum stuck underneath your desk that you accidentally touched when reaching for your stuff, "we don't think he'd make it without the necessary medical intervention."

"And I can deny him treatment even when his life depended on it?" It was the stress, and the deaths I had seen that had gotten to me, I was verging on the side of insanity. "Because I'm his _guardian_?"

"Well," If there was a more disdainful look than what you gave chewed gum that you accidentally touched, that would be it, "not for normal guardians, but given your situation-"

"You mean because he bet his life against me and lost," I interrupted his delicate phrasing, he nodded awkwardly. I lost a bit more hope in this world. "Treat him. And treat me too."

I was sent into the hospital with Yugi, but while he needed life support, I mostly needed sleep and food, which I did get.

24 hours and an unreasonable amount of hospital bills later, I was allowed home, Yugi was still unconscious. 'He just over-exerted himself during the duel," his attending assured me, 'his condition has stabilized, all we need to do is wait until he wakes up."

I stumbled home, envious of the number of visitors that Yugi got, but glad that my duel with Yugi didn't attract any attention. After all, he wasn't yet the King of Games. I managed to seal the records of that duel, being Yugi's guardian, and having beaten him in a duel might do me more harm than good if not handled properly. Not that I had any choice.

First thing I did after getting home was summoning my Slate Warrior again, he seemed fine at least.


End file.
